Catastrophic Earthquake in Turkey Barely Disrupted Local Aluminium Industry Chain due to Long Distanc

SHANGHAI, Feb 10 (SMM) – According to CCTV news and CCTV international news, the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey had killed more than 7,700 people in Turkey and Syria, including 5,894 in Turkey and 1,832 in Syria. On February 7 local time, the World Health Organization stated that as many as 23 million people might be affected by the devastating earthquake, including about 5 million poor people.

Seydisehir, the only primary aluminium smelter in Turkey and owned by Eti Aluminium, is almost 500 kilometers away from the source of the earthquake, and was thus unaffected. It has an annual capacity of 80,000 mt of aluminium and 260,000 mt of alumina. 

Similarly, Turkey's downstream aluminium processing plants are concentrated in Istanbul, which is 1,400 kilometres away from the epicenter of the earthquake, also enabling them to be immune from the earthquake for now.

According to SMM statistics, China exported 170,000 mt of aluminium and related products to Turkey in 2022, which were mostly primary aluminium and aluminium semis, including 77,000 mt of aluminium plate/sheet, strip and foil, 3,500 mt of aluminium extrusion, as well as 21,300 mt of other aluminium semis.

On the whole, the earthquake has had little impact on the local aluminium industry chain for the time being. SMM will keep a close eye on any possible change in China’s aluminium product exports to Turkey in the future.