ÇEBID: "Production in steel pipe production does not meet consumption and raw materials are inaccessible"

Mehmet Zeren, Secretary General of ÇEBİD, stated that they believe that the sector has a huge export potential and said, "We want to make our competitive power sustainable by revealing it."

Production does not meet consumption

Commenting on the problems of the sector and possible regulations regarding these problems, Zeren stated that the domestic production of hot flat steel products, which the sector uses as raw material, does not meet the consumption and made the following assessment "The domestic production of the products we use as raw materials is 10.5 million tons, of which 2 million tons are exported. However, the domestic consumption of these products is around 13 million tons and therefore about 4.5 million tons of products are imported.

In addition, the customs duty rate on imports of hot flat steel products has been increased from 9 percent to 15 percent as of January 2023. The halt in production at an enterprise operating in the region where the earthquake disaster that shook our country occurred and which produces a significant amount of products has also led to a significant reduction in supply. All these developments have deepened our problems with access to raw materials, which is an important problem."

The price per ton jumped by 100 dollars

Stating that hot flat steel prices have increased by 100 dollars per ton since the customs duties were increased, Zeren continued his words as follows: "Deadlines have also increased to 5 months. On the other hand, domestic flat steel producers make their sales in dollars.

Within the scope of the new practice of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey; in this process, where banks are not allowed to use loans if raw material purchases are dollar-based, the dollar-based raw material sales of domestic producers have a negative impact on the sustainable growth of our sector.

As sector players, if we overcome the problems we face in accessing raw materials, the most important problem of our sector, we will significantly increase our production and exports, and we will carry our current contribution of 2.3 billion dollars to the Turkish economy much further."