At the 5th SteelOrbis Turkish Steel Market Conference held in Istanbul on November 26, gathering together over 560 representatives from 295 different companies with the sponsorship of Turkish integrated steelmaker Erdemir, MMK-Atakas' sales and marketing manager Cem Ustun delivered a presentation regarding the rapidly expanding flat steel production industry and market in Turkey as well as developments in MMK Atakas, the $1.7 billion joint venture between Russia's MMK and Turkey's Atakas being built in Gebze, Istanbul, and in Iskenderun.
In his presentation, Cem Ustun revealed the worries of flat steel producers as flat production capacities rapidly develop in Turkey and as competition consequently increases. With the immense investments that have been recently commissioned, particularly from 2009 on, he pointed out that domestic production capacities taken together with imports are currently way higher than local demand, resulting in the urgent need to export some Turkish flat steel products.
Mr. Ustun also added that, with the recent changes in the tax regime in Turkey, the country's foreign trade profile has changed profoundly, shifting particularly from the CIS region towards the EU.
MMK-Atakas' sales and marketing manager pointed out that a new industrial area is developing in southern Turkey, to which MMK Atakas is also contributing, in addition to Isdemir.
Highlighting a particular aspect of the MMK-Atakas investment, Mr. Ustun stressed that the company had invested more in coated steel production - more than the three largest producers active in Turkey - compared to its lower investments in galvanized and hot steel products, because the company believes in the future prospects of the product group in question.
The advantages of MMK-Atakas as compared to its market rivals were detailed as follows by Mr. Ustun: short lead times, production with high-end technologies, broad product mix and the location of the Iskenderun plant close to the export markets.
He also pointed out that MMK-Atakas' investment will be completed in 2011, when the company's coating line (Gebze, January 2011), hot rolling line (Iskenderun, February 2011) and galvanizing line (Gebze, 2011) are all commissioned in 2011.