Turkish steelmaker Kardemir has lowered the sales goals for most of its products in Q1 2021 compared with Q4 2020.
In an announcement this week, Kardemir indicated a Q1 2021 sales goal of 138,000mt for rebar 14.3pc down from 161,000mt set for Q4 2020. For the first quarter of 2021, the company has targeted 204,000mt for billet and bloom down 16.4pc from 244,000mt in Q4 2020, and 106,000mt for angles, rail, and beams a decrease of 1.9pc from 108,000mt for the same period.
Bars in coil is the only product where the steelmaker has increased its target by 10.6pc to 136,000mt for Q1 2021 compared with 123,000mt in the last quarter of 2020.
Kardemir produced 1.9mn mt of liquid steel in the first three quarters of 2020, up 14.2pc from 1.7mn mt produced during the same timeframe in 2019. Primary product sales increased by 6.4pc to 1.8mn mt from 1.7mn mt during the same period.
The Turkish steelmaker’s primary product output increased by 12.6pc to 1.8mn mt in the first nine months of 2020 from 1.6mn mt in the same year-ago period. Sales revenue increased by 12.8pc to TRY5.2bn ($699mn) during the same nine months under comparison.
According to data from Turkey’s TÇÜD, Turkish mills produced 26.8mn mt of long finished products in January-September 2020 and achieved a consumption of 21.9mn mt at an average of 22.4pc or 4.9mn mt from 24.9mn mt in the first nine months of 2019 when Turkish mills produced 24.9mn mt and consumed 19mn mt with an average of 31.1pc or 5.9mn mt.