Cengiz AYTEKİN
Administrative Manager
Seza Çimento
In a process of economic instability on a global scale, it was unthinkable for us to be isolated from the fluctuations in the markets as a country. In 2021, with the aftershocks of the heavy effects of the pandemic of 2020, we went through an economic bottleneck. The effects of the exchange rate on inflation were immense in an economic environment with active foreign exchange. This put a heavy load on inflation, making it difficult to reach growth targets.
The industry, whose input costs have increased astronomically, could not reflect this increase in sales figures
Increased energy and freight costs due to exchange rate fluctuations, and many compelling negative factors such as cement prices that increase below inflation have put the industry in a difficult position. Cement production increased by 9.5% compared to the previous year, while domestic sales increased by 9.6%. According to the temporary data of the Exporters’ Associations, the total exports of the cement industry increased by 12.7% on value basis and reached 1 billion 256 million dollars in the January-December 2021 period. The total export amount decreased by 1.9% to 30.8 million tons. Of the said export, 18.3 million tons consisted of cement and 12.5 million tons of clinker. Although there is an increase in the number of exports based on value, as can be seen in the figures given above, there was a decrease based on tonnage. Although the increase in the exchange rate makes exports attractive, energy costs, which constitute a very serious input especially for the cement sector, were adversely affected by the increase in exchange rates. I believe that the sector, whose input costs increased astronomically in this case, could not reach its 2021 targets because it could not reflect this increase rate to the sales figures.
For the year 2022, our main goal will be to increase exports based on tonnage and to reach figures that will contribute to the country’s economy. Large increases in commodity prices in global markets have seriously affected the construction industry. We fear that this will cause a contraction in the construction and building sector and that this shrinkage will also reflect on the cement sector. The perception that the increase in construction costs is due to cement and iron, which are the basic materials of construction, is wrong and may cause various problems for the sector. A real costs analysis shows that the ratio of cement in construction costs does not exceed 8-9%. Although we paint a pessimistic picture for 2022, we believe that it will become more optimistic with measures and incentive decisions that the current government can take in favor of the sector.
