Dr. Yasemin Acik has her signature under many social projects. Not only that, In order to pay off her duty of loyalty, she established a cement factory worthy of $250 million in the city where she was born. We talked with Professor Dr. Yasemin Acik and about the process of Seza Cimento from its establishment up to the present day and their future expectations.
Can briefly tell us about the story of Seza Çimento since its foundation until now? What is the capacity of your current plant? What is your turnover, number of employees and your position in the sector?
Seza Çimento was brought to life with the idea of establishing a cement plant to provide contribution to regional development and minimization of difference between the development levels of the regions, in 2011. In the end of feasibility studies, location finding, raw material issues and licensing procedures we were able to initiate the construction in February, 2014. Following completion of our infrastructure preparations, we performed our initial production in March, 2016. Established right within the raw material quarries our plant is located in Baskil district of Elazığ province with a total area of 887 thousand square meters as 832 thousand square meters being outdoor and 55 thousand square meters being indoor. Established with an investment of 250 million dollars, we manufacture 7,500 tons of cement daily in this plant. Employing total 500 people, our plant realizes nearly 2.3 million tons of cement per year. Taking their families into account, we contribute to the lives of nearly 5 thousand people in the region. Also, our plant has 3 proprietary railway lines offering a great advantage to us. We have 2 switchyards for energy. Its location, distance to reach the markets and infrastructure facilities played a great role in selecting this place. We already have the possibility
to serve to every province from the region that our plant is located with our production capacity and product quality.
One of the most wondered aspects is why you established a cement plant as a female investor. What do you say?
For nearly 25 years, I worked for our family owned companies operating in energy, construction, fuel, media and tourism etc. sectors in addition to academic and civil society studies. However, my dream was always to realize a project that I own, that I plan and implement from start to finish. This project would be such an effort that it should both contribute to minimization of developmental differences between regions, ensuring regional development and improvement of social peace through development of senses of belonging and conservation; and have the quality of being a social responsibility project that would encourage the business world to invest in these regions. Moreover, it should not only create employment but also touch the lives of many people. When all of these came together, making investment in industry came out as the most accurate option. Foundation phase was challenging and required personal attention and supervision. Therefore I took 3 years of unpaid leave from the university and stayed at the construction site day and night at every phase of the construction. Finally, I was in this sector as the only female entrepreneur who has invested in the cement sector. In order to concentrate on the plant more, I retired from my position in the university in April this year and my entire focus is on Seza now. Our new route aims to make completely new investments and assume completely new tasks.
How was 2018 for you? Can you provide a brief evaluation? Do you think that your estimations made in the beginning of the year will match with the end of year? Can you summarize your 2019 goals with a few words? Do you have investment plans for the following year?
We are having a very successful 2018. Although we are a new player in the sector, we will have exported 22.5% of our product capacity by the end of this year. Bringing export to the level of 30 percent and higher is among our priorities for the following year. Our target markets of export are primarily the nearby countries, and also Africa and South America. 2019, in particular, will be the year of attack in export for us. Within this scope, we will engage certain instruments in order to increase our export this year and we will make investments both for logistics and harbor operations. These investments will play a major role particularly in overseas cement export of Seza. We are aiming to increase our market share and R&D studies in the mid- and long-term by extending our product variety. As Seza, we are manufacturing all types of gray cement. In line with our goal of increasing both our domestic and foreign market share by developing new product segments, we produced sulfate-resistant cement in our R&D center this year and we were involved in very important projects. We are able to satisfy a need that the region was seriously suffering from with this product of ours named CEM 1 42, 5 SR5 which is used in concrete production for for sewerage, bridge, tunnel, viaduct, hydroelectric or irrigation dam projects; and projects which require sulfur resistance such as silo, water tank, water duct and channel projects. On the other hand, we are also planning to manufacture low alkali cement which the American market is in demand for and we have completed our testing phases on this product. We also realized an innovation in our region and started to launch cement in 25 kg bags. Thus, we were able to enter DIT stores and started to address consumers who need cement in small quantities. Briefly, I can say that we achieved all of the goals we have set in the beginning of the year and we already have concentrated all of our efforts for 2019 goals.
You are taking sure steps towards being “environment friendly plant of Turkey”. Can you talk about your studies regarding this matter?
As you know, establishing an environmentally conscious cement plant requires very serious investments. We made any kind of investment to increase environmental awareness of the sector to higher levels, despite being burdened with additional costs. In this respect, we use bag filter system in all units including the intermediate units. Dust emission to the environment is very low in our plant thanks to this system. There are legal limits for dust particle emission levels of the cement plants. While this is 50 milligrams per ton for our country, European Union
Standard stipulates 30 milligrams per ton. However, this figure is not even higher than 1 milligram in our case. We are at 0.70 milligrams. Bah filter system allows rapping the produced dust just like a vacuum cleaner and allows its reuse as raw material. Our plant processes are completely of European origin and we constructed an environmentally friendly factory with high energy efficiency and low calorific values. Assuming all of these investments was a result of my loyalty to the people of this region and the land I have born and was raised. Therefore, we strived to do our best.
I can say that we achieved all of the goals we have set in the beginning of the year and we already have concentrated all of our efforts for 2019 goals.
What do you think about the future of cement and construction sectors in Turkey?
The construction sector is one of the leading sectors of our national economy. Growing in parallel with this sector, cement sector is growing in correlation with the construction sector. We anticipate that the cement sector will continue to be active in the following period. KPMG’s 2018 Sectoral Overview Construction Report confirms our anticipation. Accordingly, it is estimated that while the share of construction sector in the overall economy would be 10 percent in developed countries in 2025, that will reach to 17 percent in developing countries. Share of construction in GDP in Turkey is at the level of 9 percent, yet, this figure reaches to a level of 30 percent in the overall economy with the sectors it affects indirectly. According to 2018 Evaluation of Cement, Glass, Ceramic and Soil Products Exporters Association, Turkish cement sector offers employment to 19 thousand people with 70 plants and exports to more than 100 countries. Our country still takes the first place throughout Europe and fourth place throughout the world in cement production. It is anticipated that domestic sales will increase in 2019. It is estimated that demand for cement will increase in Turkey in the following year and the production will increase by 4-5% during the upcoming three years. Within this context, I think that our sector will continue with its accelerated growth in the future.
What do you do to improve energy efficiency?
Our plant is one of the plants in Turkey with the lowest fuel and power consumption in terms of coal and electrical energy, which are very highly consumed by cement plants. For this purpose, production equipment selection of our plant was made with the intent of ensuring low energy, low fuel consumption and low dust emission values right in the beginning and with the decisions that are made in the establishment period. We are also carrying out continuous maintenance and investment studies in order to improve energy efficiency and to ensure sustainability of our environmental values. We are also planning to minimize energy costs by satisfying a major part of Seza’s energy demand with the solar power plant we will establish beside our plant with an investment of 15 million dollars in the following period.
Can you explain the steps you have taken in terms of Occupational Health and Safety? What are the main lines of your policy in this matter?
We really place importance to occupational health and safety. We completed all of the required physical, area and training studies. We are improving and refreshing ourselves in this respect. As you know, sampling points in production phase can be sometimes very hazardous and risky areas in the cement sector. As a plant which places utmost priority to offering a safe work environment for its employees assuming the principle of high quality in production, we make use of robotic applications both¬ in all phases of production and in sample analyses following production. While the devices we use in production function under a robotic system, all of the products we produce are picked via automatic sampling systems and collected at quality control laboratory through pneumatic system and analyzed with RoboLAB quality control systems. Number of samples taken during production process is increased and analysis periods are shortened by the help of this system. Therefore, we have the possibility to minimize standard deviation at every phase of production. Number of businesses which employ robotic applications from production to analysis is very limited in the cement sector in our country. As Seza, we are a business which manages all of the production instruments using modern systems.
Where would you like to see the company in the following 5 years? How do you get prepared for that now?
As Seza Çimento, the most important goal we set is to maintain the leadership position of our plant in the region, to grow both in the domestic and foreign markets with the difference created by our plant in the sector with our new products. We are continuously going on with our investments and R&D studies in order to achieve this goal. In the following period, we will realize our concrete plants which will largely increase our competitive strength. In this respect, we are planning to bring Seza to the leadership position in 5 years, operating with maximum energy efficiency, having completed all of the required investments and designing the new ones, balancing the export rates through domestic market sales, growing with its employees, succeeding to touch the lives of more people and having increased its contribution to the region.
Can you tell us about yourself? How many hours do you work a day? What do you do outside of work? How your hobbies add value to your life?
I work 8-9 hours per day, in total. This time can be longer sometimes. I am recently spending most of my energy for Seza Çimento. Meanwhile, I carry out non governmental organization efforts. I am the founding member and chairperson of Development of Health and Fighting Against Smoking Society that we founded in 1991 and nominated by the cabinet decree dated 1998 as public benefit society. I took office as executive for 3 terms in Elazığspor Football Club. I am the founding member of Elazığ Tennis Specialization Club Society. I am the Vice Chairperson of FIRATSİFED. I took office for one term as Vice Chairperson (2015-2018) at TÜRKONFED (Turkish Entrepreneurship and Business World Confederation) and as chairperson at TÜRKONFED İDK (Women in Business World Commission). Within this scope we initiated a number of activities such as “Multi-faceted Empowerment of Women Project”, “International Women’s Summit”, presentation in meetings held by United National Women’s Commission (UN WOMEN) in New York. I am also currently sparing considerable amount of time to social responsibility projects and non-governmental organization efforts with the title of Chairperson at Elazığ Businesswomen Society (ELİKAD). I spent most of my NGO life by working for ensuring that women, who constitute half of the population, can be more active in social, economic and cultural life. I am still striving for this purpose. Because I believe that entire Turkey will benefit from multi-faceted strengthening of women, ensuring equality of opportunity between women and men, women taking more place in top positions and decision making mechanisms. A strong economy, a strong democracy are possible through strengthening of women. As we all now, men can reach to resources, information, finance, communication networks, lobbying activities more and can realize their personal development better. Because, unfortunately, equality of opportunity is not present due to our social structure and social gender understanding. In this respect, men start the life and business world one step ahead than women and in a more advantageous manner. I am spending all of my time other than my business life for the purpose of strengthening women. Also, difference of development between regions, inequality of distribution of income and inequality of opportunities between women and men which I witnessed since my childhood became by greatest dream of striving to do what is not done. Therefore, I always took action for every field that I considered to be problematic in the society. Therefore, the most important fields I worked on were mother-infant health, violence against women, being a woman in the East, social status of woman, child neglect and abuse, education of disabled children, smoking, alcohol and addictive substances. I am happy to know that I was able to realize some of my dreams and I could reach to many people in these fields. Reading books is essential for me. I am not considering it as an hobby but a daily routine of life. Because, books have an unparalleled value with what they offer to people. Witnessing other opinions, other cultures, successes and stories of other people through books enrich and develop a person substantially.
A strong economy, a strong democracy are possible through strengthening of women.
What recommendations do you have for women entrepreneurs as a businesswoman?
They shall always develop their hearts with their dreams. They shall keep themselves vigorous with the reality and continuously keep updated with new information. They shall read both success and failure stories. They shall use their instincts to make right decisions and determine the
field they would like to work in and seek for the state aids and loan facilities regarding the field they are planning to invest in. They shall analyze the market they want to get involved in and follow it closely. Above all, they shall never give up the way they are setting off for. Their motto shall be courage and determination. When they venture for taking the first step for the work they believe that they will like to do and make an effort for that, success will come eventually.
