Yasemin ŞANLI
Turkey&Stans General Manager, GCP
What kind of structuring does GCP Applied Technologies, which has a rooted history and is one of the globally expert companies in its field? Could you tell us about the establishment and activity areas of the company in general?
GCP Applied Technologies has a deep-rooted history and also it is a global company that has been restructured in recent years with its belief in innovation and technology. In 2016, W.R Grace split into two publicly traded companies, Grace and GCP Applied Technologies, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. GCP is an innovative, technology-focused company that has more than 50 years of industry expertise and has proven its success in creating new products for years, producing concrete and cement admixtures and building materials.
You are producing concrete and cement admixtures, building materials and technologies for the construction sector. Would you tell us about your product portfolio and the services you offer?
GCP, we offer an innovative, special and wide range of construction chemicals products globally comprising of concrete admixtures, architectural concrete products, liquid pigments for colored concrete, cement admixtures, fire and waterproofing materials. Since 1986, we have been continuing our activities in Turkey and for the last two years, we have been taking a break from the production of concrete admixtures apart from the global product portfolio and continuing with cement admixtures and waterproofing materials. We plan to add concrete admixture production and VERIFI® system to our portfolio in Turkey as soon as possible when market conditions are established in our geography for innovative products in the Ready-Mixed Concrete sector such as the concrete management system in VERIFI® transit.
Examples of recent innovations include VERIFI® Transit concrete Management System, CONCERA™ Fluid Concrete Control Admixture, SILCOR® Liquid Waterproofing, and TYTRO® Shotcrete System.
About 85 years ago, GCP started developing cement admixtures that would make the cement grinding process more efficient and led the industry. Since then, it has continued to lead the development of admixtures that increase cement grindability and performance.
As for recent innovations on the cement admixture side, we can talk about TAVERO® VM grinding facilitator and OPTEVA® quality enhancer admixture for vertical mill. TAVERO® VM helps optimize the performance of vertical mills. Vertical mills are notable for increasing efficiency and reducing energy consumption. But it can cause quality problems in cement due to cement pre-hydration. TAVERO® VM prevents quality problems that may occur by reducing the water requirement needed for stable mill production.
Today, many cement manufacturers in the world continue to use our innovative products safely. Our close cooperation with cement manufacturers has contributed to the development of cement production science and thus, GCP’s R&D teams played a key role in creating innovative, customer-oriented solutions. Our engineers working in the field and our technical sales teams proudly share their deep knowledge and equipment with their customers and continue to contribute to their production processes.
Thanks to our global and local production and distribution points, we can supply and support cement manufacturers in 100 countries.
As a global company, what differences do you offer your customers with your products and services?
Each admixture should ensure high quality cement production while increasing efficiency, productivity and profitability. Our cement admixtures products include high performance grinding facilitators, functional admixtures and water reducing admixtures. At the same time, as GCP, we are the world’s leading supplier of customized and optimized formulas according to customer demand. Thanks to our R&D and database generated over the years, our liquid grinding facilitators improve cement viscosity while also improving grinding efficiency and mill output. Our main cement admixture brands can be listed as HEA2®; Daragrind®; TDA®; ESE®; CBA®, OPTEVA and TAVERO, as well as admixtures customized according to customer demand.
In addition, our functional admixture portfolio includes Synchro ™ as a chromium reducer; and high-performance TYTRON®, HYDROPHOBE® and AIRALON®. These products have also been developed in accordance with EU Reach regulation.
Our cement admixtures play a key role in sustainable cement production by reducing CO2 emissions, reducing the amount of clinker, and increasing the output of cement mills. Thus, BLUE 360SM also contributes to the Sustainability Advantage.
BLUE 360SM among your products offers significant advantages to your customers. Can you tell us how this system works and the advantages it offers?
BLUE 360SM Advantage is briefly integrated product, technology and expertise offer. As GCP, we provide a combination of customized products, technologies, custom-designed solutions and support to help our customers grow and optimize their business.
We combine five BLUE 360SM advantages to provide added value to our customers:
• Product performance advantage
• Design Advantage
• Field Advantage
• Knowledge and intelligence advantage
• Sustainability Advantage
BLUE 360SM Sustainability Advantage motto is ‘Let’s Build the World Thinking’
Today, GCP is a strategic supplier and partner providing specialized construction chemicals, specialized building materials and concrete technologies for many leading companies. They have confidence in the product, data, software and services that we will supply for the smooth continuation of their projects and the better operation of their final products.
With each solution comes expert technical service and support. Our goal is to help our cement manufacturer business partners become more efficient and more profitable in the entire grinding process. BLUE 360SM Field Advantage experts have been in the cement industry for a long time. They help manufacturers cope with the challenges they face in their production processes, creating new opportunities for process optimization, while sharing outstanding best practices and the latest technology with them.
As for what are included in the services we call BLUE 360SM Field Advantage for our cement producer business partners:
• Applied field trials; commissioning of mills and making initial admissions, product use and dosing
• Technical seminars on the use of cement admixtures and optimization of grinding systems for factory managers and technicians
• Mill inspections
• Modeling that can help them perform cost/value analysis
• Full support and problem solving support in the field and remotely
Friends in BLUE 360SM Field Advantage team also work very closely with our scientists in R&D department. In this way, they have great efforts and contributions in solving technical problems, finding new application areas, testing new chemicals, and producing customized solutions.
You said GCP is investing in technology and the future. Can you give us a current example?
In 2019, we focused on creating solutions to the main challenges faced by cement manufacturers, including reducing the carbon footprint, and we continue to invest in technology in this area.
When performed correctly, identifying custom-designed products according to each factory’s own inputs and processes is a time-consuming process. To make this process more efficient, we have developed GCP DASHSM to help make peer and real-time product selection after providing the necessary data. Thanks to the DASHSM application, we have developed algorithms under the leadership of our cement formulation experts to ensure that the most accurate contribution to meet the needs of our customers is recommended in the fastest way.
To sum up, by using a number of data related to the processes and technical needs of our customer in factories, we can immediately select the most suitable product for the needs at that moment with our sales manager. With DASHSM app:
– At a better benefit/cost ratio, a formula can be selected that will give the optimal result,
– By speeding up the product verification process, it is possible to achieve more efficient use of factory and resources,
– Additional cemented materials can be used to reduce carbon absorption and provide operational savings.
Frankly, we are very excited about this new application and the benefits it brings, and I hope our customers will be happy to see its use.
Would you share your general views and thoughts about the Turkish cement and ready-mixed concrete sectors? What steps do you think need to be taken to get us to a better position in the world?
As in the past, the construction sector is very important today because of the intensity of internal migration movements in Turkey, the increase in urbanization, the size of the young population and the fact that the housing sector is seen as an investment tool by the society.
Cement manufacturers are focused on sustainability and low carbon emissions in the world and in Turkey, and I believe that manufacturers and countries that make sincere investments in these two issues today will definitely come to the forefront in the future. Cement production causes more than 500,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere annually. Considering that along with environmental sensitivity, there are economic reasons that lead cement manufacturers to sustainable practices, investments in sustainability and low carbon emissions will also make the Turkish cement sector stand out among world producers.
As a company, what are your goals and strategies for the coming period?
As GCP Turkey, we are well aware of the economic and social challenges and impacts in the Covid-19 environment. But we will continue to invest in issues that will carry us into the future, especially our R&D work. As I mentioned before, as a company focused on technology and innovation, we will always keep on this goal. When GCP introduced its first grinding facilitator cement admixture in 1935, it broke a new ground. GCP Applied Technologies have since introduced many customized, innovative products to the market (for example, OPTEVA® CBA® and Ese®, TAVERO® VM, Co2ST ® Reducer etc.) and contributed to the reduction of clinker use and CO2 emission savings. Today, GCP DASHSM has been introduced to its partners with a new intelligent digital solution that allows us to offer fast and accurate products. OPTEVA® can contribute to a significant reduction in CO2 absorption in cement production thanks to the combined use of TAVERO® products and the DASH digital platform. As GCP Applied Technologies, we will continue our work on this issue and our search for innovative solutions without slowing down when we think that it will be of serious benefit to the cement sector.