ANKARA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- With competitive prices and improved quality, China's steel giant Sinosteel Corporation is exploring the market potential in Turkey's steel industry as an equipment provider and contractor.

The Sinosteel Equipment and Engineering Co., Ltd. (Sinosteel MECC), a subsidiary of Sinosteel, had completed construction of 16 steel-producing or related projects in Turkey in the past decade, with a contracted value of 200 million U.S. dollars, Pan Xiaoyong, Sinosteel MECC representative in Turkey told Xinhua.

The company had another 11 projects under way, with a total investment of 300 million U.S. dollars.

Ahmet Taskim, who is in charge of the Toscelik slab casting and hot-continuous-rolling project contracted by Turkish steel producer Tosyali Holding to Sinosteel MECC in 2007, said he was satisfied with products and services provided by the Chinese partner and that he had started to discuss further cooperation with Sinosteel MECC.

"We not only reduced our investment cost through cooperating with Sino steel MECC but also saved a lot of time, so that we can launch the production just as the economy began to recover," said Taskim.

"It's the first time I work together with the Chinese," Arif Bolat, a technician at the Toscelik project, told Xinhua. "They have great initiative in work and we've built good partnership."

Besides equipment imported from China, Sinosteel MECC also had more than 500 Chinese technicians and workers at the Toscelik project who were responsible for equipment installing, said Pan.

Sinosteel MECC entered the Turkish market in 1999 and most of its projects were located in Turkey's Biga, Eregli, Iskenderun and Osmaniye.