Osman Nemli / Bursa Cement General Manager
How did the cement sector spend the year 2022 in local, regional and global terms?
When we look back, the pandemic period caused shrinkage in the cement sector just like in almost every sector. There were unfavorable breezes of pandemic in 2020 and 2021. While we were hopeful about the year 2022, we encountered different factors this time as well.
In this process, the increasing costs, especially in the economic sense, were reflected in our sector and there were huge increases in prices. In other words, our sector started the year 2022 with a decline in the domestic market. I have been in the sector for long years. I can say that I have not seen such a price increase until now, even during inflationary periods. In 2022, there were increases that were unpredictable in any way and occurred in a very short time.
Meanwhile, the Russian-Ukrainian war also began. This situation has adversely affected our country and our sector as well as the entire world. We were faced with an energy crisis. At this point, there has also been a very dramatic increase in energy costs. The cement industry is an energy-indexed sector. We had a very difficult time while reflecting this situation on our sales prices. When we look at the picture in general terms, it is difficult to say that the year 2022 went very well on a sectoral basis.
What sector-specific issues do you foresee will be on the agenda for the year 2023? What are your general predictions for this year?
The uncertainty in energy prices is likely to continue this year. Besides, the Russia-Ukraine war has also damaged the cement sector both in terms of energy costs and export markets. Therefore, I do not expect a big movement in the sector in the first half of the year. I think there will be a more stable period for a while due to the slowdown in exchange rates and energy unit costs. In order for our sector to continue to develop, it is absolutely necessary to prevent the rapid change in energy costs. Our biggest expectation this year is to prevent the change in our input costs.
Despite this negative atmosphere, our sector continues to closely follow the technology and make sustainability-oriented investments. As is known, a global movement has been initiated today against the danger of climate change. Sustainability and green transformation issues will be on our main agenda in our sector this year as well. As Bursa Çimento, we are also making serious efforts on these issues.
I predict that the works carried out in factories for green transformation will increase during the year. It is necessary that more companies turn to green transformation investments as part of the fight against climate change. For this purpose, new financial and incentive channels should be opened.
What will be your projects and strategies in general for 2023 and beyond?
We have taken sustainability into our focal point in 2023. We are shaping our works in this direction. Besides, 2023 is very important for us. We are currently continuing our new investment activities. We will implement an investment that we believe will make significant contributions to the Turkish economy and will be considered a pioneer in the sector.
It was no longer technically possible to achieve the environmentally friendly and sustainable results we aimed for with the improvements to be made on the existing machinery. That’s why we started our new investment. We are really proud of our new investment in terms of technique, quality, qualification and contributions to the environment.
Paris Agreement and Green Deal processes, which have been on the agenda intensively in recent years, have been among our main targets since the first investment was planned. With this investment made for our factory to be among the ‘facilities of the future’, we are actually implementing an internal improvement project. At this point, we aim for a completely more innovative approach, not an increase in capacity.
With our new investment, we will rise to a leading position in our sector in digital transformation with the state-of-the-art machinery and software park we will use. When our investment is completed, we will have built one of the first facilities in Türkiye and one of the few in the world.
By taking clean investment as our priority; we will continue our work with projects that will contribute to the realization of a more sustainable and low-carbon world in harmony with nature.
We have to get a lesson from all happenings and make future plans
We are experiencing the deep sadness of the earthquake disaster, the epicenter of which is the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaraş and the impact of which is felt in the surrounding provinces.
I wish mercy from Allah to our citizens who lost their lives, condolences and patience to their relatives, and speedy recovery to our injured citizens.
The earthquake has deeply upset us all. We are facing with a really great pain. Get well soon to all of Türkiye…
I sincerely believe that we will heal our wounds quickly together in solidarity and that we will make every effort to overcome this disaster in unity and togetherness.
After the earthquake, as Bursa Cement, we immediately started support activities. In addition to supporting the supply of materials needed in the region, we sent our volunteer friends from our Bursa Cement Search and Rescue team and our emergency container to the earthquake zone in cooperation with AFAD and they participated in the work there.
We will overcome these horrible days in our country with unity and togetherness, and we will heal our wounds together.
Unfortunately, a large part of our country is located in a geography that may be exposed to earthquakes. We need to have a serious road map on this issue as a country.
We should always remember “the fact of earthquake” in our country. For this reason, a more detailed study should be carried out on unsafe structures, strengthening and renovation works should not be neglected and related steps should be immediately taken in this regard.
I think that the construction standards of buildings that serve the community such as hospitals, schools, gymnasiums, mosques, shopping malls should be kept higher compared to other buildings. The excess number of people present at the time of the earthquake and the importance of staying functional in case of an emergency that may occur became clear once again during the last earthquake.
If a serious mobilization is not initiated regarding the earthquake, the unsafe buildings contained in the existing building stock will continue to pose a risk. The urban transformation we have been talking about for years should be the main topic while getting ready for the earthquake.
In the unfortunate example of Kahramanmaraş earthquake, we once again faced many examples, not only in terms of building construction and transformation, but also the importance of assembly areas, urban transportation and communication network, which left us helpless in an emergency. We have to learn from all that has happened and arrange the next plans. Taking into account the warnings made by scientists, we need to take these actions immediately.