OYAK targets higher-value steel with a Romanian rolling investment
OYAK chief executive Murat Yalçıntaş outlined a shift towards higher-value steel as Chinese producers intensify price competition. A planned cold-rolling investment in Romania would turn steel from its Turkish operations into thinner electrical steel. The group wants to increase the value of its products rather than simply expand standard output. The investment plans and target selling values remain management projections.
Economics & Markets··Evening
Chinese competition pushes the product mix
OYAK chief executive Murat Yalçıntaş said the group would respond to Chinese steel producers’ price competition by concentrating on higher-value products. He outlined the strategy at an İSDEMİR anniversary event in Payas, in Turkey’s Hatay province. The planned shift includes a cold-rolling investment in Romania to produce thinner electrical steel. Management’s priority is improving product quality and value rather than expanding standard steel capacity.[1], [2]
Thinner steel for electrical equipment
The Romanian investment would reduce steel thickness from 3 millimetres to 0.1 millimetres. Yalçıntaş identified motors, generators and transformers as intended uses for the electrical steel. He cited a target selling price of 1,800 dollars a tonne for the thinner product. That is a management objective for the upgraded product, rather than a price already achieved through completed sales from the proposed investment.[1]
Existing mills underpin the strategy
Yalçıntaş put Erdemir and İSDEMİR’s combined annual liquid-steel capacity at 10 million tonnes, with utilisation at 98 per cent. İSDEMİR alone has capacity of 5.8 million tonnes. He also said OYAK would consider investments or acquisitions that improve its product range, quality or efficiency. The Romanian rolling plan fits that stated direction; the announcement does not establish completed capacity or realised earnings from the new investment.[1]
