Turkiye has reduced gas prices for industry by 20% since April

The Turkish Oil Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) is reducing wholesale natural gas prices for large industrial enterprises by 20.01% from April 1, 2023, compared to the previous month. This is stated in the BOTAŞ press release

In addition, BOTAŞ reduced wholesale natural gas prices for electricity producers by 16.67% m/m.

Compared to October 2022, when gas prices in Turkiye reached peak values, the wholesale price of gas for industry as of April 2023 has decreased by 52.43-63.63%, and for electricity producers – by 51.52%.

“After this adjustment, the lowest price for natural gas among European countries is applied to our country,” the message says.

This is the third decrease in the cost of gas in the country for industrial consumers in 2023. At the end of January 2023, BOTAŞ announced that starting from February 1, 2023, it will reduce the wholesale prices of natural gas for large industrial enterprises by 13.3-17.2%. After that price adjustments took place in March – by 20.95-26.12%.

In addition, at the end of 2022, the regulator of the energy market of Turkiye announced about reduction of electricity prices for industrial consumers by 16%. The department also lowered the maximum price for electricity on the free market from 4.8 thousand liras/MWh to 4.2 thousand liras/MWh.

Recently, the president of Turkiye Recep Erdogan stated that from April 1, 2023, the prices of electricity for all consumers will be reduced by another 15%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in September 2022, Turkiye raised prices for electricity and gas for industry by 50%. The regulatory agency linked the rise in electricity prices to the rise in energy prices, especially under the influence of the war in Ukraine.

The share of energy costs in Turkish steel sector has increased to 28-30% of the total costs in steel production against the background of the increase in the cost of gas and electricity. Turkiye’s steel industry’s capacity utilization rate has dropped from 75% to less than 60% as producers cut shifts or shut down operations.

Steel production in Turkiye in 2022 decreased by 12.9% compared to 2021 – to 35.1 million tons. TCUD expected a fall in production by more than 13%. During the year, steelmakers exported 19.6 million tons of steel, which is 17.7% less year-on-year.