February 20 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's prime minister Dusko Markovic said the country is working to ensure the cooperation of local steel mill Toscelik Niksic with customers from Turkey's defence sector.
Montenegro is interested in signing a defence industry cooperation agreement with Turkey, in order to support the delivery of specialty steel products of Toscelik Niksic to Turkish defence companies, Markovic said during a meeting with Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to a press release issued by the Montenegrin government on Sunday.
The relations between Montenegro and Turkey are very good, but they could be improved further through an additional investment of Turkish companies in the Montenegrin industry and energy sectors, Markovic added.
The Montenegrin government sold the Zeljezara Niksic steel mill, now Toscelik Niksic, to Turkey's Tosyeli Holding for 15 million euro ($15.9 million) in 2012. The Turkish owner has invested 35 million euro to increase the annual output capacity of the steel plant to 400,000 tonnes from 120,000 tonnes.
The Turkish company is working on building a unit for the production of rolled profiles at the steel mill.
Tosyeli Holding's subsidiary Toscelik, the direct owner of the plant, is among the companies that have won a tender for the supply of steel pipes for the Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project for transporting gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Turkey.
($ = 0.941656 euro)