At the Eurometal Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, March 5, in cooperation with SteelOrbis and with nearly 300 participants, Metin Tayfun İşeri, chairman of Turkey’s Association of Flat Steel Exporters and Manufacturers (YISAD), and Eurometal board member Alexander Julius, made the opening speeches.
Tayfun İşeri stated that safeguard measures have shaped the last five or six years of global iron and steel trading. While producers were considering globalization before, they have now started to focus on regionalization. According to Mr. İşeri, the Section 232 measures that entered into force with the approval of the former US President Donald Trump in 2018 led to the regionalization, and the EU had to bring in quotas on steel trading in line with this, though reluctantly. US producers took advantage of this period, the YISAD chairman said, by making more investments than before, commissioning over 10 million mt of new steel capacities and replacing old facilities with new and modern ones. Even though the EU fell behind, they have started to invest in green production and electric arc furnaces as part of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and the EU governments have funded their local producers. In the meantime, İşeri said, the geopolitical unrest in the Middle East that began towards the end of 2023 changed and affected trading despite the opportunities. After the Suez Canal was shut down and the Panama Canal limited the number of vessels passing through, many issues surfaced. He added that several factors such as inflation and high interest rates will continue to affect demand this year.
The second welcome speech was given by Alexander Julius, Eurometal board member and managing partner of MACROMETAL. He talked about the mission of Eurometal, giving some organizational details, including scope of their operations. He also added that Turkey is a precious source for the steel industry in Europe.
Mr. Julius added that Eurometal is very glad to have Turkey as a partner, as it is one of the major steel exporters to the EU. Although last year the steel export volume of Turkey to the EU was down 36 percent due to safeguard duties, AD duties and energy costs, in 2023 Turkey was still the second-biggest source of steel imports for the EU, with a total of 3.33 million mt. Furthermore, Turkey is very committed to the decarbonization issue, with 72 percent of Turkish steel production being EAF-based. Thus, its advanced technologies in this field make it a big player in the steel industry and a great supply partner for Eurometal.