Ozkan's US mill to displace niche steel imports

Feb 05, 2013 | 04:04 PM | Anne Riley

Tags  Ozkan USA, Ozkan Demir Celik Sanayi, Ugur Ozkan, M. Fehmi Nuhoglu, steel, scrap, Anne Riley

NEW YORK — Overcapacity in the U.S. steelmaking industry will not discourage Turkey’s Ozkan Demir Celik Sanayi AS from building a micro-mill and related scrap facility in Louisiana, a company executive told AMM, as the company plans to produce only niche products not currently available from domestic steel mills.

"We are not here for rebar or regular profiles," Ugur Ozkan, president of Houston-based subsidiary Ozkan Steel USA LLC, said in an interview. "We are entering this market not like the other steel producers; we are here to produce niche products."

Ozkan Steel USA, which confirmed plans to build a scrap facility, micro-mill and rolling facility at a yet-to-be-determined location on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in late January (amm.com, Jan. 24), will primarily serve consumers in the U.S. shipbuilding, transmission tower, trailer and mining industries—sectors today largely served by imports from Europe rather than domestic operations, Ozkan said.....