Steel Manufacturers Dodge a Bullet in Turkish/Syrian Earthquake

According to MetalMiner sources, the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 have not damaged the area’s steel manufacturing plants. The first jolt struck at 4:17 AM local time, just west of Gaziantep. The 7.8 magnitude quake caused widespread damage and destruction across both Turkey and Syria. To make matters worse, a second earthquake occurred at 1:24 PM near the city of Kahramanmaraş.

Various media outlets report that the incidents have claimed over 5,000 lives and injured more than 30,000. Unfortunately, both of these figures are likely to grow.

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The Affected Region is Crucial to Steel Manufacturing

An official for Russian parent company Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel (MMK) said in a statement to Interfax that flats producer MMK Metalurji steel manufacturing remained unaffected by the jolts. MMK Metalurji is in south-central Turkey’s Hatay province, which borders Syria. The plant can produce up to 2.3 million metric tons of hot rolled coil per year via a single electric arc furnace.

MMK Metalurji has an HDG line with a capacity of 900,000 metric tons per year, using hot and cold rolled coil as feedstock. The site can also roll 755,000 metric tons per year of cold rolled coil. Further downstream, the site can produce up to 400,000 metric tons of pre-painted, galvanized coil. It’s important to note that the EU included the MMK plant in its sanctions following last year’s invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

A source close to the situation told MetalMiner that the İsdemir plant, also in Hatay Province, has not experienced any damage either in terms of steel manufacturing. “If there are any problems, then it would be with energy transmission, though so far nothing has been said,” the source added. İsdemir is part of the OYAK pension fund’s Mining and Metallurgy Group. This also includes the Erdemir plant in northern Turkey on the Black Sea.

İsdemir can produce up to 5.3 million metric tons per year of crude steel via four blast furnaces and three 200-metric ton basic oxygen furnaces, which it casts into both slab and billet. The plant can also roll hot rolled coil, plate, and wire rod, and uses some of its billet for commercial sale.

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Turkey Remains a Major Player in Global Steel

Turkey is a major exporter of steel products to Europe, North America, and the Middle East and is valuable in global steel manufacturing. Total exports in 2022 reached 19.6 million metric tons. According to a January Turkish Steel Exporters’ Association report, this is down 17.7% from about 24.2 million metric tons in 2021. World Steel, meanwhile, announced in January that yearly crude steel production was off 12.9% year on year. This represented a drop to 35.1 million metric tons from almost 40.4 million last year.

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