Hatim Benmoussa
Votorantim Cimentos Turkey, CEO
“Industry 4.0 is also a great differentiator in increasing the speed and breadth of our innovation, fulfilling our commitment to the future and ensuring the permanence of our company. And we are very lucky that we have well-qualified and trained human resources in line with our Empowered People pillar, which is to bring people together who take initiative and can help us to achieve lasting results.”
Being one of the leading players of cement sector in the World and Turkey, Votorantim Cimentos is recently draws attention with its activities. Would you tell us the foundation stage of the company and its fields of activities in general terms?
We are a global company in the building materials industry, with a presence in four continents. Founded in 1933, Votorantim Cimentos S.A. is privately held, 100% owned by Votorantim S.A., one of the largest holding companies in Brazil-with businesses in strategic and diversified sectors: construction materials, mining, aluminium, long steel, energy, orange juice and finance-which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018.
Votorantim Cimentos have a team formed by cultural diversity with presence in 11 countries and maintaining its business in 3 regions: North America, South America and Europe-Asia-Africa. It is one of the largest companies in the building materials industry (cement, concrete and aggregate) in the world. We are the 6th bigger player in the world in the cement sector.
When were the operations of the company started in Turkey? What kind of operations and organizations do you have in Turkey?
Votorantim Cimentos stepped out from the America for the first time in 2012 with the investments it made within the scope of its strategy to strengthen its international expansion. In this context, as a result of the asset swap relating to our 21,21% stake in Cimpor, Turkey operations has also taken over. The company, based in Ankara, has 4 integrated cement plants in Ankara-Hasanoğlan, Yozgat, Çorum and Sivas, 2 cement grinding and packaging plants in Nevşehir and Samsun. Besides, we are operating in aggregate and concrete industry.
There were substantial changes in the company organizations recently. What are your prospects in future organization and strategies?
At Votorantim Cimentos, a building materials company committed to customer success through excellence, our strategy is based on 4 pillars: Customer focus, empowered people, best in class operations, sustainable practices. As part of our focus on innovation and operational excellence, we constantly monitor our performance and are obsessed with continuous improvement, we make decisions quickly and intelligently, in a disciplined and consistent manner and we maximize productivity in all areas. Industry 4.0 is also a great differentiator to increase the speed and breadth of our innovation, fulfilling our commitment to the future and ensuring the permanence of our company. And we are very lucky that we have a good quality and well-trained human resources in line with our Empowered People pillar which is about bringing people together who take initiative and can help us to achieve lasting results.
The sector we do business in is one of the largest sectors of the world volumetrically. In such intense competition, how do you differ from your competitors? In your opinion, what features differentiate Votorantim Cimentos from other companies?
Customer focus drives our decisions and motivates the involvement of all areas to develop solutions and services that deliver what customers need and to identify market trends that enables us to anticipate future needs. More and more, we adapt our processes and products to customer demands, to serve them with efficiency and agility, which are the basis for lasting relationships based on good relationships. Within this concept, we have been the first cement Company in Turkey having a customer services line and technical services team. Besides, 25 kg bagged cement was first supplied to the market by Votorantim Cimentos.
Turkey and its surrounding region are in heavy economic difficulties in recent years. How were you affected from such circumstance?
Primary vision of Votorantim Cimentos is to ensure sustainable and long-term growth as a strong company respected and known in the societies that it operates in. After experiencing a recession in the second half of 2018, the economy grew in 2019. We trust Turkey’s economic strength and future. Our sustaining and development investments like Sivas Plant investment, Hasanoğlan Plant waste unit investment and planned investments for coming years are the steps we have taken are in the direction of this trust.
Turkish market offers significant opportunities to international establishments and investors. What are your general opinion regarding to this market?
Votorantim Cimentos always aims to be a leader and active player in the markets and sectors it operates in. In this sense, Turkey is among the markets where Votorantim Cimentos is assertive. Although there is a more challenging local and global economical outlook, we have confidence in the Turkish market potential. There are many opportunities in this market: a market with infrastructure and housing needs. Good quality and well-trained human resources, product and production quality, proximity to markets with export potential are important opportunities.
What are your projections in economy and the sector for future?
We are always following the evolution of political, economic, social and environmental events in all regions of the globe where we operate to determine how to advance and fulfill our future strategy, which is based on levers of value creation, geographic diversification, product and service diversification, as well as a strong presence in the sector. As a result of this follow up, I may say that in last couple of years, the economic outlook have been subjected to higher levels of uncertainty than usual all over the world; but optimised environmental performances in the industrial process and sustainable development projects will help to provide lasting solutions in the sector.
What is the future vision of Votorantim Cimento for and after 2020? What are your future plans and projects for Turkey and the world?
Sustainability is one of our prioritized targets. For us, sustainability means reconciling internal business growth targets with the current and future needs of society by offering ecoefficient and innovative products to our customers. To reduce our environmental CO2 footprint, we are seeking for alternatives to reduce the fossil raw materials consumption and also more environmental energy resources.
Sustainability also means maintaining initiatives for the local development of our communities.
Our 2030 goals and targets is set within the concept of sustainability for all of our operations to ensure alignment with our purpose, “Life is made to last”.
While mentioning sustainability, we learned that you have get your legal license for 100% thermal substitution rate in Hasanoğlan Cement Plant. How did you manage this process?
The global cement industry has been valorizing waste energy in its manufacturing process for decades and it is contributing to the development of the circular economy. The circular economy aims at sustainable management of resources and that “nothing is wasted“, unlike the current model of “manufacturing, using and throwing away”.
Within this concept, the priority of Votorantim Cimentos is the application of the hierarchy of waste management, so that the energy content of waste is recovered when it cannot be avoided, reused or recycled, instead of being deposited in a landfill. Therefore, we have been working for turning waste into energy since a while.
With the use of alternative raw materials and alternative fuels, we are helping to turn waste into value and contributing to the reduction of consumption of natural resources and fossil fuel, we optimize our energy consumption by reducing CO2 and we are able to control our footprint.
With a great teamwork and a dedicated effort, it is our pleasure to share that our trial result report has been approved by Turkish Republic Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation and now we have the license of thermal substitution rate for hazardous wastes with 39,9% and for non hazardous wastes with 100%. In Turkey, we are the first and only plant that reaches this level of substitution.
In conclusion, would you please shortly talk about yourself and your past works? Particularly, how did your career get formed within Votorantim Cimentos?
I started my career in the cement business in 1997. I worked at Holcim in Morocco and Lebanon. Later at Cimpor in Egypt, and then, I started with Votorantim Cimentos (VC) in 2012 as COO in Morocco and from 2016 to 2018 as CEO of VC China leading the conclusion of the divestment process. Now I’m working as CEO of VC Turkey.