AST is the only Turkish deepsea scrap terminal in the world!

Amsterdam Scrap Terminal BV (AST), a subsidiary of Mat Metal, as being one of the leading companies in the recycling sector, is well known in the industry especially in terms of exports to Turkey. During the interview with the SteelRadar team, the huge amount of ferrous scrap in the facility has the scale to impress industry stakeholders.

Their operations are as follows;

Scrap metal is exported to the centre from BeNeLux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and Germany by trucks and barge. The scrap metal stocked at the terminal is then loaded onto ships and transported.

With its 27000 m2 stock area and advantageous location, AST can load up to 50,000 mt of scrap onto ships.

The company, which also operates in finished products, serves many countries by building on its success in scrap. Volkan Başol also emphasised that Turkey has recently slowed down in scrap purchases and stated that they expect the Turkish market to regain strength in the near future.

Başol mentioned that although they have exported billets to Turkey from time to time, the products are exported worldwide, mainly to the USA, Hong Kong and Senegal through their group company. He also added: 'We have local co-operations in North America and North Africa. Our position in the finished product market gives us great strength. We want to expand our scrap operations in this way as well.

Ferhat Hacı and Volkan Başol continued their evaluations about the markets and commented that the biggest problem at the moment is the slow growth of China and the fact that they are still exporting the goods they produce. Adding how effective the pressure of China, which dominates the market, is on scrap, the company officials said about scrap prices, 'In order to speak optimistically, growth figures must first come from China. China should be able to melt its goods in its own domestic market. After that, we can talk about scrap in a more positive way.

When we asked about the real share of the Netherlands in the sector, Başol said, 'The export capacity of the Netherlands is around 4 million. The majority of this, namely 3.3-3.4 million, is exported to Turkey. The region is in a very advantageous position in terms of logistics.

In addition to all these, when we asked about the atmosphere and competition conditions, we were informed that there is intense competition in the region, especially with the decrease in prices, scrap dealers also withdrew.

When we mentioned that Turks seem to be very active in the region, Ferhat Hacı said, "This is the only Turkish deepsea scrap terminal in the world. And there are many Turks working in the scrap terminals. But it is an honour to work in AST BV, a deepsea terminal where all the capital belongs to Turks. Apart from this, there are other companies which are smaller."