Six Turkish manufacturers get the right to supply pipes for TANAP

Turkish metallurgists enthusiastically welcomed the invitation for six local producers to participate in supplying steel pipes to the TANAP pipeline under construction, which will carry Azerbaijani gas to Europe via Turkey.

A total of 18 companies were invited to place their bids for the supply of trunk pipelines for the project after they passed the preliminary qualification stage last year. The construction of the 1,850-kilometer TANAP gas pipeline is scheduled to begin in 2015. It will be completed by the end of 2018 in three phases. The pipeline is planned to be connected to the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline.

Turkish companies Borusan Mannesmann, Noksel Çelik, Emek Boru, Tosçelik, Ümran Çelik and the consortium Erciyas Çelik Boru fought their international competitors to win a billion dollar contract in a tender. Tender notices for the prequalification of the TANAP stage were announced last August.

Turkish steel pipe producers were worried about their possible exclusion from the project, which would result in huge losses for the sector. Pipe manufacturers also feared that the project's tender specifications might include a type of steel pipe that was not presented in Turkey.

Steel production in Turkey fell 3.4 percent as a result of a tough year for local producers, who were hit hard by an anti-dumping investigation in the mainstream US market.