The competitiveness of the Turkish iron and steel industry in the process of membership to the European Union

The iron and steel industry is one of the leading industries in Turkey. By means of capacity and volume in international trade, Turkey is among the leading countries in the world. Therefore sustaining the competitiveness of the Turkish iron and steel industry has an utmost importance.This thesis investigates several issues related to the competitiveness of the Turkish steel industry especially while Turkey is on the way to be a member of the European Union. The main aim of this thesis is to develop a competitiveness model and to prove the relations between the factors of the model and competitiveness. Further than that, the importance of each factor of the model is tried to be find out. Another aim of the thesis is to find ways and means to increase the competitiveness of the Turkish steel industry.Based on the literature survey on competitiveness, a competitiveness model for the steel industry in general is developed. The factors are: Cost; Quality; Technology; Accessibility to Markets; Location; Role of Government; Domestic Market and Firm Characteristics. The relation of these factors and the competitiveness is investigated through a 21 question-questionnaire, that the executives of the Turkish steel industry have attended.According to the findings, all eight factors are find to be in positive relation with the competitiveness of the Turkish steel industry. In addition to that the importance of each factor for the crude steel producers and Re-rollers are found. It is also found, that the Turkish steel industry has to focus more on the higher value-added products, invest to balance the long-flat production ratio, reduce energy costs, and focus on vertical integration to supply its own raw materials for Re-rollers and integrated mills.