Yavuz IŞIK
President
Avrupa Hazır Beton Birliği (ERMCO) ve THBB
We have been keeping on working with an ever increasing performance since our foundation in 1988. In 2016, we realized Concrete Ankara 2016 Expo in Ankara that we organized to present a very wide range of products including concrete plants, construction machines, trucks and tow trucks, transmixers, pumps, formwork systems, cranes, several concrete chemicals, automation systems, tires and fuel oil products and sectoral machines to concrete and aggregate producers and constructors. Our expo hosted numerous professional attendees from Africa and Asia, particularly Middle East. Within the framework of the expo events, we realized a series of seminars where hundreds of people attended.
Upon the acceptance of the amendments to the Work Health and Safety Law in 2015, significant amendments were made to Vocational Qualifications Authority Law no. 5544. According to the aforementioned law, those who do not have Vocational Qualifications Certificates shall not be employed for the jobs which are hazardous and very hazardous works and for which national standard and competence was published by the Vocational Qualifications Authority and which are stated in the Communiqués to be enacted by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. As per this law, THBB Vocational Qualifications and Certification Center was established within our authority.
For the purpose of developing the sector in terms of technical knowledge and production quality and ensuring compliance with the national and international standards in terms of environmental control and work safety, we organized the first Blue Helmet Work Safety Contest in 2010, and with an attitude to set an example for Europe, in 2016 we organized the third Blue Helmet Work Safety Contest for the purpose of preventing work accidents in the ready mixed concrete sector, creating awareness of work safety in the sector and measuring competence of the facilities. As a result of the inspections, we granted 10 ready mixed concrete facilities with “Blue Helmet Work Safety Award” at the end of May.
We take every opportunity to express that we endeavor to represent our sector not only in the national level, but also in the international level, in the best manner possible. This year, I was elected as the Chairperson of European Ready Mixed Concrete Organization (ERMCO) that is a noteworthy organization, where we have been a member since 1991 and taken part in the Presidency Committee since 2014. With this office at ERMCO, for which I was elected with the votes of 70 delegates at the 24th ERMCO Board of Directors Meeting held in Germany on September 8, 2016 and with the resolution of the Presidency Council consisting of the representatives from France, Germany and Turkey, we will follow the agenda in Europe more closely, bring the latest developments to our country, and try to bring our sector’s problems to the organizations in Europe and find solutions. Therefore, we, as Turkey not only will lead the European ready mixed concrete sector, but also will contribute to the development of ready mixed concrete sector in our country.
For the purpose of following up the developments in our sector and taking the required measures by early noticing the developments to affect our sector, we initiated our works with our members this year, in order to prepare the “Ready Mixed Concrete Index”. With this index study, we aimed at both seeing the development in the ready mixed concrete sector, but also following the developments in the other economic activities, particularly construction.
Ready mixed concrete and construction sectors are very important for Turkish economy. Ready mixed concrete sector is the most basic branch of the construction sector, where over 1264 establishments operate, with its turnover reaching 16.4 billion Turkish Liras, over 38 thousand employment volume and almost 107 billion cubic meter production annually.
Depending on our work to develop the ready-mixed concrete sector, we also revealed our objectives. We made 2 different analyses for 2016: Turnover per company and total turnover of the sector. Net sales figure expected per company as of 2016 is 23.4 million TL. For the sector to display its growth performance in the past years, our producers have to increase their sales by 17% under the optimistic scenario. However, considering the developments in the construction sector, simulations drag the growth rates to lower. Accordingly, our expectation is that the ready-mixed concrete sector will reach a growth of 16.4 billion TL in 2016. We estimate the sector’s turnover increase rate to be 8% for 2016. However, no doubt that the developments in the aftermath of July 15th, market structure that shrunk in the last quarter and the fluctuations in the exchange rate in the same period will have an impact on the growth rates anticipated.
In December 2016, after the American Central Bank FED’s interest rate increase decision, global markets have not found their direction. All such issues as Trump economy, China’s expected growth performance, impacts of the election in the US, results of Brexit, FED’s continuation of gradual interest increase will be effective on the growth policies of the development countries, particularly Turkey. Regarding Turkey’s economy, we know that with the domestic consumption that got shrunk in the last quarter, a downward movement arose in Turkey’s growth trend. One of the exceptional sectors that got out of this trend is the construction sector. With the impacts of some measures taken, particularly of the interest rate reduction in the housing loans, a partial enlargement occurred in the housing sector. It is very difficult to anticipate how long this trend in the housing sector will continue after December. Displayed a noticeable performance before July 15th, housing sector is very far from its dynamics earlier in the year.
Another issue to have impacts on the growth performance of the construction sector, therefore in the ready-mixed concrete sector is “public construction spending”. Did not display a significant increase this spending is expected to increase in 2017. With this movement, the development in the ready- mixed concrete sector will automatically arise. The figures in the Medium Term Plan announced by the Prime Minister gave the signals of the increase in the public spending as well. In this period when Turkey is experiencing a challenging period at home and abroad, economy has to be supported through public spending. In the view of these developments, we expect a turnover increase rate of 10 percent in our sector.
As the Europe’s star with its ready-mixed concrete production of 107 million cubic meters, our country is the largest concrete producer, following China and USA. For our objective to strengthen this position of ours even more and to become a country of reference with our knowledge and experience, we believe that sectoral dialog and collaboration is important. In this regard, we embarked on the way to realize Concrete 2017 Ready Mixed Concrete Congress and Concrete, Aggregate, Construction Technologies and Equipments Expo that is a very important meeting for determining our sector’s vision and roadmap. In the expo to be organized between April 13-15, 2017, while the latest technological products, tools, machines and equipments regarding the ready-mixed concrete, cement, aggregate and construction sectors are being displayed, in Concrete 2017 Congress that is to be held on April 13-14, 2017, under the titles concrete components, inspection of quality in the production and onsite, special concrete, concrete design and solutions in the special projects, recycling and recovery in concrete production, concrete roads and highway concrete security buildings, concrete plant and shipment efficiencies and latest developments in the concrete technology, papers to contribute to the development of the sector will be presented. Expected to be visited by numerous professional attendees from Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East, our expo is also supported by Istanbul Chamber of Industry, Ankara Chamber of Industry, Chamber of Civil Engineers İstanbul Branch, Turkish Construction Industrialists Union, Turkish Contractors Association and Green Building Council. I invire all company authorities to follow up the latest developments in the sector by attending the expo that is to gather together several companies from the construction sector that is the flagship of the economy and ready mixed concrete that is the basic arm thereof.