Steel production in Turkey declined due to power outages following last week's cut in natural gas supplies and a significant increase in gas prices. Electric arc furnaces were forced to shut down production for at least three days.
Veysel Yayan, general secretary of the Turkish Steel Manufacturers Association (TCUD), says the industry was informed of the power outage in an official letter.
“The steel industry is one of the sectors that consume the most electricity in Turkey. Every second of downtime is a financial waste for the steel industry,” says Yayan. He added that all industries in Turkey would be affected as a result of the power outage.
“This poses an extraordinary, serious challenge for all industries. We hope that Turkey will overcome this misfortune as soon as possible. Every second causes financial damage. We hope that lessons will be learned from this problem and that we will not face similar situations in the coming years,” concludes Yayan.
A local trader says: “Because we are dependent on electricity, we have not been greatly affected by the natural gas shutdowns. But the power outage happened unexpectedly and hit our industry. These cuts are not timely given that we are getting serious demand for commercial bars in the global market.”
Another manufacturer says there is a risk of a power outage for more than three days.
“The natural gas shutdown and accompanying power outages are an unexpected event that could have a severe negative impact on our industry’s production and exports in January,” said Turkish Association of Automobile Manufacturers (OSD) Chairman Haydar Yenigun.
“In this process, it must be taken into account that the coordination of all stakeholders in the value chain is critical to the effectiveness of production plans,” he continues. “Another important issue is that when developments come to the fore that will affect production, informing as early as possible to be able to prepare for the application will allow the automotive industry to adapt to the process.”
"If you take into account $30 billion in exports, $40 billion domestic market and the entire service and dealer ecosystem, a three-day stoppage of production means a loss of $1 billion on the simplest analysis," adds TAYSAD President Albert Saydam.
