The export champion of the Aegean Region, as exchange rates do not increase at the rate of inflation despite the increases in energy, raw material and labor costs caused by high inflation; Aegean iron and steel exporters set a target of 2 billion 200 million dollars by reducing their 2024 export targets by 315 million dollars from the 2 billion 515 million dollars of exports they achieved in 2023.
Speaking at the 2023 financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters Association, Yalçın Ertan, Deputy Coordinator of the Aegean Exporters Association and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters Association, said that due to high energy costs, exchange rate pressure and high input costs, 2024 He shared that they set their export target for the year as 2.2 billion USD.
President Ertan said, “In order to achieve this goal and to support increasing the competitiveness of the sector, we have carried out and continue to work on the issues of "Green Agreement and Sustainability", which are on the world agenda and are of great importance especially for the iron-steel and non-ferrous metals sectors. Between 2023 and 2026, which is the Border Carbon Regulation Mechanism transition period, we took it upon ourselves to prepare our member companies as much as we could for 2026, when financial obligations will be implemented. We continue to carry out our URGE project, supported by our Ministry of Commerce, with 15 companies in our sector this year. With our project, we try to support our participating companies with training, consultancy, and international fair visit organizations such as corporate carbon footprint calculation training and consultancy, energy efficiency training and consultancy, sustainability report preparation training, access to sustainable finance training. We also made an important visit to the Green Steel World Fair and conference held in Germany and had the opportunity to follow sectoral developments. "With our visit to the Made in Steel fair, which takes place every two years in Italy, we witnessed how important the issue of sustainability is in the development of the iron and steel industry," he said.
We achieved our goal in 10 months in 2023
"We had set an export target of 2.2 billion dollars for the 100th Anniversary of our Republic, which we celebrated with pride and enthusiasm," said Ertan and continued his words as follows; “We achieved this goal at the beginning of November. We closed 2023 with exports of 2 billion 515 million dollars, a 2 percent decrease compared to 2022. In 2023, due to high inflation throughout Türkiye; While there was a loss of 7 billion dollars in steel and non-ferrous metals exports due to the increase in energy, raw material and labor costs and the exchange rates falling behind the inflation figures, it is pleasing to see that our Aegean Region has demonstrated a more successful performance and positive differentiation, and that companies producing value-added products are in our region. It is an honor to be included. “We rely on this strong side of ours in 2024.”
Energy prices increase imports
Speaking at the 2023 financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters' Association, held at the Aegean Exporters' Associations Conference Hall, President Ertan said, "We all know the high importance of the iron, steel and non-ferrous metals sectors for our country's exports. Although our sector will be among the top exporting sectors in 2023, we have experienced that we have been going through a difficult process for the last 2 years, where our competitiveness has weakened due to wars, recession, inflation and protectionist measures of opposing countries. While Turkey meets most of its energy and raw material needs from abroad, causing it to be sensitive to changes in international energy prices, the fact that energy prices in our country are higher compared to the Far East and Europe causes the competitiveness of our sector, whose biggest cost is energy, to weaken and also to increase imports. . On the other hand, India and Arab countries are also making new investments in the iron and steel sector, and it is obvious that these countries may become important competitors for our country in the future.”
We won an EU project with the clean energy sector for carbon management
Announcing that a project called "Intercluster Cooperation Project" for Carbon Management, together with the renewable energy equipment sector, which is an important export item of the Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters' Association, has been entitled to be funded by the European Union, President Ertan continued his words as follows; “We also applied for a Turquality project in partnership with all exporters' associations in the iron, non-ferrous metals and steel sector in Turkey. "We aim to increase the Aegean Region's exports in the steel, iron and non-ferrous metals sector to over 3 billion dollars in 2028, with the marketing activities we will carry out in the target markets to be determined with this project."
At the 2023 financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters' Association, EDDMİB Board of Directors and Audit Board members were unanimously acquitted for their 2023 activities, while the 2024 business program was adopted by the general assembly members. EDDMİB's 2024 budget was determined as 58 million 500 thousand TL.
The Aegean Iron and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters Association, which has been the export champion in the Aegean Exporters' Association for 7 years and maintains its clear leadership at the top with an export of 2 billion 515 million dollars in 2023, realized an export of 625 million dollars in the first quarter of 2024.
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