Turkey has improved its flat products’ trade balance with the EU year-on-year to the end September, but this continues to be negative, according to Turkish producer Borçelik’s export manager, Ersun Özdemirel. The overall flat steel trade deficit with the EU during the first nine months of 2017 reached nearly 600,000 tonnes, Özdemirel said during the Kallanish Europe Steel Markets 2017 conference held in Madrid this week.

Meanwhile for the first time since 2010 the trade balance for HRC alone became positive. “Turkey’s trade balance with the EU is back to being positive for HRC due to higher demand from southern European countries. It is the first time this happens since 2010,” said Özdemirel, adding that the positive balance could be extended in 2018. 

According to Borçelik data, the country has exported 1.40 million tonnes of HRC to the EU in the first nine months of 2017, while it imported 1.17mt. Italy was the main destination for Turkish HRC, taking 458,000 tonnes, while Spain imported 392,000t in the period.

Total Turkish shipments of all flat products to the EU amounted to 2mt as the trade balance with the continent remained negative by some 600,000t. In recent years the trade balance had been adverse for Turkey by as much as 1.5mt.   

Globally Turkey imported 7.9mt of flat steel products up to the end of September (-1% y-o-y). This represented more than half of the Turkish domestic market flat steel consumption in the period (13.4mt), especially for value-added grades for automotive and white goods, Özdemirel confirmed.  

Looking forward, Özdemirel expects the trade balance to continue to improve for flats. “Turkey continues to invest in and improve its flat steel production, especially in HDG and coated coil lines. We expect galvanized steel output to surpass 5.5mt in 2018."