Suat ÇALBIYIK
ÇEİS Chairman
Efficient capacity utilization, digitalization, alternative fuel and raw material utilization, creating local players globally with alternatives to reduce logistics costs will further strengthen our industry in the future
Could you briefly mention about the establishment and fields of activity of the Cement Industry Employers Union?
The Cement Industry Employers Union (ÇEİS) is an employer union established in 1964 in order to protect and develop common rights and interests of its members with regard to their working relations, to support the productive work of its members, to manage collective bargaining processes and to improve occupational health and safety. Alongside industrial relations and human resources activities, ÇEİS conducts economies studies and statistical activities related to occupational health and safety, vocational education, occupational standards and professional qualifications.
Today ÇEİS, which almost all of the companies operating in the cement sector is a member, represents 65 plants affiliated to 36 companies in many platforms at home and abroad.
Turkey’s cement sector has an infrastructure, capacity, production and sales that can compete with the world. Can we get a general industry assessment from you?
The Turkish cement industry has a place on a global scale with its advanced infrastructure and production facilities equipped with highest technology. Our sector creates employment to approximately 19 thousand people within a total of 78 facilities in Turkey; 55 of which are integrated and 23 of which are grinding.
Turkey which is one of the world’s largest producer countries, has met the demands of the domestic market in 2019 and besides has exported 33% of the total cement and clinker production. Turkey is the 2nd largest exporter in the world after Vietnam with a total of 23.1 million tonnes of cement and clinker exports according to the International Trade Center (ITC) data of 2019.
How do you evaluate the general position of the Turkish cement industry compared to the rest of the world?
Turkey is not competing with the world but acting as a pioneer in the world. High-quality and affordable Turkish cement is of great interest by countries around the world. Our industry exports to more than 100 countries from America to Africa, from Cameroon to Guinea. When we look at 2019, the 3 countries we export to most are recorded as USA, Israel and Ghana, respectively. Clinker and cement exports, which were around 13 million tons in 2018, exceeded 23 million tons in 2019. Although it is a source of pride for all of us to reach such high figures as the Turkish cement industry, I believe that it is now time for the Turkish Cement Sector players to settle in local brands on global platforms.
What are the global, regional and local trends affecting the cement industry recently? How will the future of the industry take shape?
As we all follow closely, we are in a pandemic process that transforms the ways of living and normalities of the world. The uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic has become an important variable affecting the Turkish cement sector, just like any other sector.
As CEIS; we took action very quickly in this regard and we prepared the report “The Impacts of Novel Coronavirus on Turkish Cement Sector” in cooperation with Deloitte Turkey. We
shared the report “The Impacts of Novel Coronavirus on Turkish Cement Sector” recently with the senior managers of our sector which was prepared with the aims of analysing the situation created by the pandemic in Turkey and in the world, determining the impacts of the current situation on Turkish cement sector, developing action proposals through scenarios and providing perspectives on the opportunities and threats presented by the outbreak to the health professionals.
The outputs of this report allowed us to see global and local trends in the short and medium term. I would like to briefly share with you the highlights of the report.
Things to consider in domestic market:
• Evaluation of digitalization, automation and Industry 4.0 opportunities
• Promoting the use of alternative fuels and raw materials
• Evaluation of “Hedging” alternatives
• Ensuring focus on predictability and liquidity with robust and disciplined cash flow forecasts
• Focusing on efficiency in capacity utilization
Things to consider in abroad sales:
• Identifying and prioritizing strategic target markets
• Assessment of platform structures on sector basis enabling the cost sharing
• Paying attention to branded on-site production strategy and being a local player globally
• Continuing negotiations with public institutions and organizations on competition policies as a result of low capacity utilization rate
• Increasing the qualified workforce to ensure sustainable production are important issues that will determine our strategies.
One of the most remarkable points of the report is the fact that emphasis should be put on efficiency in capacity utilization. While it is underlined in the report that the global consolidation efforts in cement industry carried out via the mergers & acquisitions mainly occurring in USA and China as a result of the nature of the free market economy as well as via both central planning and by governments should also be considered in Turkey, it is also expressed that while the global capacity utilization rate for cement was around 57% in 2019, this rate was estimated as 40% in Turkey, and in this context, it is essential to follow the player changes in the cement sector which were observed in USA in the recent years and scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 by China.
At this point, I would like to add that, as the Turkish Cement sector, we have an expectation from our government to direct new investment resources to the investments needed. There is no need for new capacity and capacity increase in our sector where only 30% of the capacity can be used. It is considered that there is no need for new investment for at least 10 years.
We will continue to carry out our activities by considering these outcomes, but the performance that the world and our country will show in the process of returning to normal will be one of the biggest guides about the near future of the cement industry.
Can you give information about the projects you carry out as a union?
With our mission to be a pioneer in any work that will carry the Turkish cement industry forward, we take important responsibilities in developing projects for needs, especially in occupational health and safety and development of the competence of sector employees and we are very happy about this. I would like to briefly go over some of the projects we have recently implemented…
In April, we introduced our first image film called “Cement That Makes Us Who We Are” to the audience on television and digital media. With this movie, which is a production of YouthWorks, we aimed to support our country in the process of combating the pandemic by emphasizing the importance of solidarity.
Taking an important step last year, we launched the Building Design Competition in order to discover the innovative areas of use of cement and break down the negative prejudices about concrete. With our contest where more than 130 applications were evaluated, we opened a space for the sector to reveal creative potential. Immediately after this competition, which we plan to continue in the coming years, we launched a series of articles titled “Opus Caementicium” (Roman Concrete), in which the aesthetic structures of concrete are analysed, in order to promote the qualified uses of cement and concrete in cooperation with the Arredamento architecture magazine. The “Troya Museum” review which is the second building review of our article series, which we will continue for one year, can be accessed from the May-June issue of the magazine.
As ÇEİS and the sector, our priority is to ensure that our employees who come to the workplace healthily return to their homes healthily as well. Our most important project in this context is the “ÇEİS OHS Leadership Program” that we started in February this year. In this program which is devoted to the medium-level managers of our sector, it is expressed that the OHS responsibility does not only belong to the OHS departments but also to all employees and the managers by taking the local and international references into consideration and through the dynamics of Turkey, production habits and specific solution models. The program consists of 4 modules and 12-day trainings in total. The last module, which is the last module, is a graduation project, and it is expected that the participants will develop solutions by taking into account the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their training regarding the scenarios devoted to administrative and technical dilemmas they will encounter in their business life and regarding the subjects which they would like to develop in their factories.
This year, we launched a new training series called ÇEİS 2020 Training Program. Within the scope of the ÇEİS 2020 Training Program, we will organize various trainings open to the participation of our member factories throughout the year. With these trainings, we aim to increase the competencies of white-collar employees in our industry, as well as support the employees of our industry to achieve their personal and professional goals. These trainings cover not only personal development but also the fields of finance and digitalization. As for the subject headings, I can give examples such as “Data Analytics and Big Data”, “Conflict Management in Business”, “Agile Leadership”, “Financial Management in Fluctuating Economies” and “Financial Management for Non-Financiers”.
In our trainings in January and February, we received a great deal of interest. We have stopped our trainings since March due to the pandemic. We plan to carry out some of these trainings online. When our lives return to normal, we will continue to carry out the trainings at our Union. In addition, we are working on various project alternatives that will end the blue-and-white collar separation among industry employees and strengthen the links between the academia and the cement industry.
Finally, in order to support our sector in the pandemic process, I would like to state that we have brought together the most well-known and expert people of our country with our members through “ÇEİS Webinar Series”.
What are the steps to be taken to strengthen the sector especially in the international arena?
Cement, which is obtained after an intensive labor and a long production process, appears as a light weight product with a heavy cost. Reaching our largest export markets brings with it a high level of logistics costs. Therefore, the consumption of cement where it is produced needs to be considered as an inevitable option for optimum benefit.
From this point of view, I can say that the sector needs local producers globally, using strong and local resources efficiently in the foreign market. Strategically, considering the ratio of cement cost to logistics costs, it is necessary to focus on the producer rather than product exports. Having more local companies globally which will be identified with Turkey in the world league of cement companies and which will contribute to the Turkey brand is the primary step to be taken for making us stronger in the international arena.
As the Turkish Cement sector, we need to focus on new opportunity areas and create local players globally with our branded on-site production strategy in order to preserve our strength. As we can see in the international examples, the support that our state will provide to the Turkish Cement sector is very valuable in order to achieve this goal. The strategy “Local Players in Global” comes to the fore in the report “The Impacts of Novel Coronavirus on Turkish Cement Sector” which we have prepared in cooperation with Deloitte Turkey.
One of the most important issues in the business world recently is digitalization. What kind of works do you have in the name of digitalization? At what point do you see the sector with regard to digitalization?
The cement industry is very enthusiastic about integrating the blessings of the digital world into its business practices. Especially in our production processes, we take ourselves a step further in using the benefits of the digital world every day. However, there are still steps that our industry should take in this regard. This was one of the headlines which come to the fore in our report “The Impacts of Novel Coronavirus o Turkish Cement Sector”. I would like to explain with a few recent examples that we are an industry that adapts to digitalization quite easily. As the sector and ÇEİS, we have carried our meetings to the online platforms since the first time the new coronavirus pandemic started to appear in our country. By completing our rapid adaptation to the digital working style, we started a webinar series to offer benefits to our members on different topics. Our webinar series, where we bring together the much esteemed experts such as Professor Dr. Osman Müftüoğlu, Prof. Dr. Özgür Demirtaş, Dr. Cem Kozlu, Bekir Ağırdır and Evrim Kuran with the employees of our member companies, are still continuing.
We have integrated our 28 April World Occupational Health and Safety Day activities, which we celebrate each year with a different theme frame and various events, to the digital platform this year due to the pandemic. In this context, we have published a booklet titled “Respiratory Tract Diseases: Novel Coronary Pandemic Guide”, which we have prepared to raise awareness for our employees and their families, and which contains information about the precautions to be taken which can be accessed on our corporate website.
I would also like to share a new development with you. As of May, we have launched a new webinar series that will take place through our Cement Sector OHS Training Center (ÇİSİEM): “Cement Sector Online Family Meetings”. As well as our employees, the families of our employees are very precious to us. Our industry employees will join the conversations in our new webinar series with their families. Our webinar series, which will cover various topics such as home security, healthy nutrition, family communication, technology addiction to be handled by expert names, will continue twice a month throughout the year.
We finished the first quarter of 2020. What are your expectations from 2020? Can we get your general evaluations especially about Covid-19 pandemic and its effects?
As the Turkish cement industry stepped into 2020, its goal was to contribute to the national economy, to meet the demand in the domestic market and to consolidate its position in the global market. I can say that the year 2020 started in a promising and glamorous way for the sector after 2019, when the contraction was approximately 30%. Especially in the first three months of the year, the increase in our total exports by 54 percent was a pleasing development. However, the upward trend at the beginning of the year will show a downward trend in the coming periods, given the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
Especially, serious contractions in the USA, North Africa and European markets which are our biggest export areas, indicate that our sector’s export volume may decrease. In addition, production continues in our sector with the wide measures taken by our member factories in the domestic market.
When we take into consideration the outcomes of the report we have prepared in cooperation with Deloitte Turkey, I can say that there is a variety of medium and long-term opportunities for our sector. In order to further strengthen our industry in the future, I believe that we should be focused on efficient capacity utilization, digitalization, alternative fuel and raw material usage and alternatives that will reduce logistics costs.
Suat ÇALBIYIK
I was born in 1965 in Çorum, I am married and father of four children. I graduated from Middle East Technical University, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department in 1986. Immediately after graduation, I stepped into professional life as “R&D and System Manager” at Elimko A.Ş. After this eight years of experience, I worked as a “General Manager” at SC Endüstri Elektro-Mekanik A.Ş. for 22 years between 1994 and 2016.
In addition, I assumed the positions of Vice Chairman in 2012-2013 and Chairman of Directors between 2013 and 2015 at Akkord STI Asc. I held the positions of Chairman of Directors at ÇALBIYIK Group A.Ş. between 2010 and 2016, at ZGC Bes Enerji A.Ş. between 2011 and 2016 and at Azertürk Yatırım A.Ş between 2015 and 2016.
I was elected as the Chairman of Directors at the 29th Ordinary General Assembly of ÇEİS on 20 February 2019. I continue this task with a great sense of responsibility to move the cement industry and its stakeholders further. At the same time, I have been the Chairman of OYAK Cement Concrete Paper Group, one of the important players in the industry, since 2016.
In addition to my current duties, I also have various responsibilities such as TİSK Vice Chairman and World Cement Association (WCA) Board Member.
As a man who believes in progress and team spirit at all times in life, I have left 34 years behind since my first work experience. I continue to work, produce and contribute to our industry with great devotion. I would also like to thank all of my colleagues who have worked on shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow and have developed and transformed me during this long process.
