Osman Nemli
Bursa Çimento, Director General
How was the year 2019 for your company in consideration of your sector and Turkey in particular?
Surely, it was a tough one. Rapid shrinkage encountered particularly in construction sector battered us very much. Competition, which increased by companies’ pursuit of compensation of their losses along with the shrinkage, prevented reflection of cost increases to prices. Accordingly, there was a serious decrease both in profit margins (sometimes, sales at a lost) and in volume.
What are the developments of your company in this year, such as investments, new products, launchings, etc.?
During hard times, everyone focused on costs and cash management and suspended investments substantially. We continued small scale investments in certain subjects despite being in similar situation. Energy saving, alternative fuel preparation and consumption, and utilization of alternative raw matters are the most important topics. We realized some of such investments by means of R&D projects. Meanwhile, we had some projects on new products as well; nevertheless, we were not able to launch them since they are not in the marketing stage yet.
In general, what are your expectations in 2020? What are your targets and general strategies for this year?
Although we expect an upward acceleration both in Turkish economy and construction sector in 2020, it seems hard that such acceleration moves the sector to the conditions of 2017. In consideration of that, we plan to increase our chances of export meanwhile continuing our works as to optimize the costs. We expect to harvest the fruit of those seeds we planted for such purpose in 2019.
What sectorial developments do you expect this year?
I believe that there will be an acceleration in both housing and infrastructure investments. Nevertheless, I think it will be a safe growth that is away from unearned-income economy, and lower in comparison to past years, particularly- in acceleration in housing investments. That is actually what we want and what Turkey needs; constant growth instead of large fluctuations. I hope and wish that 2020 is to be a starting year in this sense.
