Buy Tukish pipes for Azeri line, locals say

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

‘The steel pipes for the TANAP pipeline project that will be worth $9 billion should be bought from Turkish producers,’ a local sector player says. REUTERS photo

The local steel and iron industry has reproached the Turkish government for favoring Chinese and Japanese materials and has offered locally produced sheet pipes for the Azeri-Turkish Trans Anatolia Pipeline (TANAP).

“Approximately 2 million tons of sheet pipes are said to be used in $9 billion worth of TANAP projects and we believe that these pipes should be provided by Turkish producers,” said Veysel Yayan, general 
secretary of Turkey’s Steel and Iron Producers Association.Turkish products are left unprotected against imported goods, he said. “For example, Japan has dumped its stocks that went to spare after the earthquake into the Turkish market, selling $100 below the market price, which spurred high amounts of iron and steel-goods exports to Turkey.” 

The Turkish government’s trade preferences have put the local industry in a disadvantaged position as Japanese and Chinese goods have been chosen due to their low prices, but TANAP is an opportunity to compensate the faults against the neglected industry, Yayan said.