In the press conference hosted by Chairman of Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TCMB) Nihat Özdemir and Chairman of Employer’s Trade Union of Cement Industry (CEIS) Suat Çalbıyık, “Firm Steps From Past to Future: Development of Turkish Cement Industry and Strategic Recommendations Report” commissioned by CEIS to Deloitte Turkey is shared. Giving an account of current data related with industry, the meeting also discussed current status of Turkish Cement Industry and future strategies.
In his opening speech, Chairman of TCMB, Nihat Özdemir noted that “As Turkish Cement Industry, we produced about 71 million tonnage of clinker and 75 million tonnage of cement in Turkey, continuing to contribute in national economy. Our industry, 76% of which is local investors and 24% foreign investors, ranks first in Europe and fourth in the world, in terms of production. With its direct employment of around 19 thousand people and 614 million USD of export revenues, as per 2018 data, Turkish Cement Industry has a significant share in the gross national product. In addition to the employment opportunities and economic contributions it provides, the export is another focal point of the industry.”
Cement Export Increased by 46%
Özdemir states that “In the first half of 2019, we realized a cement export of 5.3 Million tonnage, increasing by 38% and clinker export of 6 Million tonnage, increasing by 116%. The top importers so far are ranked as USA, Ghana and Israel. Total export of our industry is increased by 46%, amounting up to 444 million USD for this period“.
Cement industry contributed 3.7 billion TRY in the public budget
Highlighting that Turkish cement industry aimed at creating higher values for national economy and public wealth with medium and long-term strategies, Chairman of Employer’s Trade Union of Cement Industry (CEIS) Suat Çalbıyık said that “In collaboration with Delloitte Turkey, we prepared the report “Firm Steps from Past to Future: Development of Turkish Cement Industry and Strategic Recommendations Report” in order to analyze the current outlook of our industry and define the development areas to guide the future strategy. According to the report, cement industry is an industry which, together with all its constituents, generates an added value of 16.2 Billion TRY for the national economy, contributes 3.7 Billion TRY in public budget and provides employment to 27 thousand people, directly and together with industries it affects. With the export revenues ramped up to 614 million USD, its share in total export increased up to 37 per thousand. While these data giving us a pleasure, we, as an industry, are striving to do better. To carry the Cement industry into the future, we consider that we should focus on 4 areas as export, concrete roads, waste recycling and human resources management and develop recommendations for each area.
“Solving Customs problems with Russia and Georgia will create a market of 1 million tonnage”
Noting that there are two key issues with respect to the export as the improvement of current export conditions and development of a good export strategy for the future, Çalbıyık adds “Important contributions will be achieved if some actions are taken with respect to improvement of current conditions. For instance, we observe that industry is incurring significant market share loss due to the Russia and Georgia’s Customs which hold cement exports for 28 days for durability inspection. Just solving this problem will result in a new export volume of 1 million tonnage.
Global Turkish Brands are needed to produce in Local Market
Emphasizing the importance of developing a good export strategy, Çalbıyık adds that: “We need to create companies which will become synonym with Turkey in the World’s cement companies’ league, contributing in Turkey brand. Strategically, we have to focus on export of player instead of product export. It is important to facilitate the financial resources accessibility for the companies in order to create global Turkish cement brand that can also produce locally.
With Concrete Roads, savings as much as Marmaray’s budget every four years
Underlining that Concrete Roads are a matter of national infrastructure and economy, Çalbıyık explains that “According to international surveys, construction cost of asphalt roads is almost 2 times more than that of concrete roads in terms of investment costs. Annual maintenance-repair cost of asphalt is almost 10 times more than that of concrete roads. In this respect, concrete roads will eliminate the maintenance and repair costs of 2 Billion TRY expended by General Directorate of Public Roads every year resulting in the savings amounting to costs of constructing a Marmaray every four years”.
Industry requires a concrete step in waste management
Stating that waste management is of great importance to reduce the energy costs, Çalbıyık adds that “In Turkey, rates of energy generation and utilization from waste is behind European Union.
We, as cement industry, are ready to make necessary investments in order to solve this problem. However, we require local governments to take more concrete actions to fulfill their legal responsibilities and Ministry of Environment to follow up the process.