Category: Business

POSCO building stainless steel plant in Turkey

By Kang Seung-woo

POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang, center, poses with high-profile figures from the Turkish government, including Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, left, and Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergun, right, during the groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s construction of a stainless steel plant in Izmit, Turkey, Wednesday. The plant, which is scheduled to be completed in April 2013, will have an annual capacity of 200,000 tons. / Courtesy of POSCO

IZMIT, TURKEY ― POSCO broke ground Wednesday for its $350 million cold-rolled stainless steel plant in Izmit, Turkey in its efforts to become a leading stainless steel maker.

The plant, which is scheduled to be completed in April 2013, will have an annual capacity of 200,000 tons.

It is the steel giant’s second investment in Turkey, following the launch of its POSCO-Turkey Nilufer Processing Center (TNPC), a comprehensive auto steel processing center, last year in Bursa Province.

“The plant will be equipped with one of the best cutting-edge facilities in the world and is expected to stably produce solid cold-rolled stainless steel,” POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang said in the ground-breaking ceremony, where Turkey’s Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Nihat Ergun and Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan were present.

The chairman also said that the building of the stainless steel plant will help Turkey to improve its trade balance, as the production from the new plant will replace its imports.

Currently, the Pohang-based company, which can nearly produce 3 million tons of stainless steel, is sitting third in terms of annual production capacity behind Acerinox and Taiyuan Iron and Steel, which has an annual capacity of 3.4 million tons and 3 million tons, respectively.

The mill will be established within the Izmit industrial complex, about 100 kilometers east of Istanbul that features major infrastructure such as electricity, road and natural gas, and its closeness to Derince Port will make it easy to bring in stainless hot-rolled plates, from Pohang Steelworks, necessary for the stainless cold-rolling mill.

With the Turkey stainless mill, POSCO, the world’s third-largest steelmaker, expects to play a leading role in the Eurasian country’s domestic stainless market, which entirely relies on imports ― 210,000 tons in 2009 and 326,000 tons in 2010 ― and capitalize on Turkey’s geographic advantage to take on the demands from neighboring areas including the Middle-East, Eastern Europe, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region.

According to the steelmaker, Turkey has swiftly evolved into heavy industry-centered mode, with global automakers like Renault, Fiat, Ford, Nissan and Honda clustering in the country.

In addition, Turkey, along with Italy and Germany, is the top three home appliance manufacturers in Europe, so there is strong demand for high-end stainless steel from them.

According to POSCO, Turkey and its neighboring nations are expected to fall shortest of supply of stainless steel in the world in 2015, with its supply likely to reach 40 million tons ― 90 million tons in lack of demand.

This groundbreaking comes as POSCO’s aggressive push for value-added stainless steel is on full display.

Last week, POSCO purchased shares of Southeast Asia’s largest stainless steel producer, Thainox Stainless, to boost its stake to 75 percent from 15 percent, while earlier this year, it expanded the capacity of its Chinese stainless steel joint venture, Zhangjiagang Pohang Stainless Steel (ZPSS), from 800,000 tons to 1 million tons per year.

Over the past year, POSCO has also taken over Asia Stainless Corp. in Vietnam and Taihan ST Corp. in Korea.

Earlier the day, the POSCO Chairman said that he will broaden its economic cooperation with Turkey.

“We have set our sights on Turkey because of its steady economic growth,” Chung told reporters in a press conference after meeting Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday.

According to him, POSCO and its affiliates will make efforts to enter the Turkish markets, while Turkey is considering giving supports including tax benefits.

ksw@koreatimes.co.kr

via POSCO building stainless steel plant in Turkey.

September 30, 2011
Iraq shuts down crude exports to Turkey

Iraq shut down crude exports to Turkey through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline on Wednesday due to a leak, two sources at Iraq’s North Oil Company said.

“There was a leak from the pipeline … because the pipe was old. The North Oil Company has decided to stop pumping oil to the export pipeline,” said a senior NOC official who asked not to be named.

Iraq exported 461,000 barrels per day of crude from its northern fields in August, most of it through the Kirkuk pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The bulk of Iraq’s total exports of 2.189 million bpd in August moved through the southern export terminals at Basra.

An NOC production engineer confirmed the Kirkuk-Ceyhan shutdown and said it was not immediately clear when exports would resume. “Exports from Kirkuk were halted due to a leakage resulting from a crack in the export pipeline passing through (the town of) Shirqat this morning,” the engineer said.

“NOC workers are working to fix the damaged section and it’s difficult to give an accurate time when exports could be resumed.” Shirqat is near the border of Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces about 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad.

Production at the northern fields has not been stopped and crude was being pumped into storage tanks in Kirkuk and elsewhere, the senior NOC official said.

via Iraq shuts down crude exports to Turkey | Al Bawaba.

September 30, 2011
Turkey has become the 10th biggest steel producer globally

Commodity reported that Turkey has become the 10th biggest producer of steel globally and second largest steel producer in Europe with in a period of 10 years from 2001 to 2010. Growth of the industry in Turkey has been driven in part by strong domestic consumption.

In the 5 years between 2005 and 2010, per capita crude steel consumption in Turkey has increased by over 25% to 341 kilogram and is expected to continue to grow in the medium and long term. In addition to the strong domestic demand and dynamic steel consuming industries, Turkey’s well placed geographical position also supports exports and thus production.

LME has reported that its steel billet futures volumes have surged in 2011 with over 400,000 lots traded since launch, equivalent to 26 million tonnes and USD 13 billion. It has so far seen seven Turkey Steel companies registering their brands to be associated with the steel billet contract. There are currently 50 brands listed under the LME Steel Billet contract in 12 locations and 9 countries.

Mr Martin Abbott CEO of the LME said that “We are keen to work with the Turkish authorities to further the acceptance of the LME steel contract and to show industry users how it can protect them against price volatility.”

Turkey’s steel production capacity has been consistently rising since 2005. During the last few years many projects started production especially in flat products segment. There are also projects being considered currently for establishing new capacities and modernization of the existing capacities, which will contribute balancing Turkey’s flat and long steel production consumption structure.

(Sourced from Commodity Online)

via Steel Guru : Turkey has become the 10th biggest steel producer globally – 227419 – 2011-09-29.

September 30, 2011
EBRD further assists Turkey to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels

Azerbaijan , Baku, Sept. 29 / Trend , G.Dadashova /

The EBRD has extended its financing facility to support Turkey’s investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to increase energy savings and reduce carbon emissions, EBRD reported.

“By extending the Mid-size Sustainable Energy Financing Facility, or MidSEFF, originally launched in December 2010, the Bank will continue helping Turkey to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by financing private sector energy efficiency investments in mid-size sustainable energy projects with the total investment cost of up to €50 million,” the report reads.

The EBRD will offer a total of €225 million in loans to Turkish banks for on-lending to private sector borrowers to undertake mid-size renewable energy, waste-to-energy and industrial energy efficiency investments.

Yapi Kredi Bank (YKB) is the first local bank to join the extended MidSEFF. Through the purchase of notes issued by YKB under its established Diversified Payment Rights securitization program, it received a total of €75 million from the EBRD for on-lending to eligible sub-borrowers.

“Since its launch almost a year ago, the MidSEFF has been an important component of the EBRD’s support of Turkey’s long-term energy strategy. We have so far provided around €300 million in financing to four leading banks in Turkey. Building on our success we are pleased to welcome new Turkish commercial lenders to our extended facility. Our joint cooperation brings tangible results, unlocking the potential that renewable energy resources have in Turkey,” EBRD Director for Turkey Michael Davey said.

The Bank will provide financing to participating Turkish commercial banks through diversified payment rights securitization programs, established by those banks. In addition, the EBRD will undertake direct risk participations with the same banks in selected sub-projects up to a total value of €75 million.

As in previous MidSEFF investments, additional comprehensive technical assistance, funded by the European Union and other prospective donors, will be made available to support the preparation and appraisal of MidSEFF sub-projects in Turkey.

The four banks involved in the previous MidSEFF were Türkiye Garanti Bankasi A.Ş., DenizBank, Vakif Bank and Akbank.

The Bank focuses on renewable and sustainable energy, small business development in the regions, agribusiness, municipal, environment and other infrastructure, and privatization In Turkey.

Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at trend@trend.az

via EBRD further assists Turkey to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels – Trend.

September 30, 2011
Turkey to Host D-8 Industry Ministers’ Summit

Istanbul city will host the 2nd Industry Ministers’ Summit of D-8 (Developing Eight) countries between October 4 and 6.

Participants will discuss cooperation to produce automotive through joint research & development projects, sharing experiences in environment issue, setting common policies in environment issue, energy supply, food certification, joint research & development on electricity and information technologies, and projects on petrochemical area.

Turkish Science, Industry & Technology Minister Nihat Ergun told A.A on Saturday that the first of the summit took place in Iran two years ago, and they had decided to hold the second meeting in Turkey.

The second meeting, which would take place in Halic Congress Center in Istanbul, would be more comprehensive than the first one, said Ergun, adding that businessmen delegations from D-8 member states would attend the summit.

Ergun said that the population of D-8 countries was nearly one billion, adding that there was a large market, but they could not set up a sound cooperation since D-8 had been founded.

We target to increase the trade volume among D-8 countries to 100 billion USD within the next five years, said Ergun.

D-8 was established in 1997 upon invitation of Turkey and participation of Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria.

All of the D-8 member states are also the members of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation.

(GC)

Saturday, 24 September 2011

A.A

September 28, 2011
Turkey, UK ink info partnership agreement

ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

Turkey and the UK could cooperate in investing in third countries, the UK’s Business Secretary Vince Cable told journalists in Ankara on Monday. REUTERS photo

Turkey and the United Kingdom signed Monday an information partnership agreement in a bid to create new opportunities and develop new commercial ties between the two countries.

The agreement was signed between Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan and the U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable, following a meeting between Turkish and British delegations in Ankara.

“The information partnership agreement we signed today will create new opportunities and new commercial developments between Turkey and the U.K.,” Çaglayan said at the signing ceremony.

The target is to double the trade volume by 2015, he said. “More than 2,300 British firms have made investments worth $4.1 billion in Turkey while the number of Turkish firms investing in the United Kingdom has risen to 100.” The minister said trade volume between the two countries had reached $12 billion in 2010 and continued to rise in 2011. Turkey’s exports to the U.K. increased to $4.6 billion and imports totaled $3.4 billion in the period between January and July, Çağlayan said.

“Under the agreement, we will carry out several projects especially in energy and energy productivity [sectors]. Turkey is planning to make energy investments worth $120 billion in the next 10 years,” Çağlayan said.

Çağlayan also said Turkey and the U.K. would work on Turkey’s project to make Istanbul a regional finance center. “We want to benefit from the U.K.’s experiences in this regard.”

Cable said the U.K. considered Turkey a strategic partner. The U.K. wants to cooperate with Turkey especially in investing in third countries, he added.

September 28, 2011