Displaying items by tag: Türkiye

Turkey: The Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) has announced that it will be continuing its work under the new name of TürkÇimento.

Chair Tamer Saka said “We've witnessed enormous changes in managerial, social and economic areas for a while, like all the countries of the world. In this environment of transformation and uncertainty, which is even more complicated with the pandemic in which institutions like us have a great responsibility to direct the future. The most important aim of our association is to carry our sector, which is the most important player of the Turkish economy, forward with the experiences of our institution. We will achieve this as a sector with social sensitivity which generates added value, maintains corporate confidence, invests in humans and pioneers in digitalisation, technology and innovation." He added "We are embarking on a new vision journey to bring our industry to the forefront with its pioneering, socially sensitive, sustainable and innovative activities and practices and to raise awareness among stakeholders of all our activities as a pioneer for more and better.”

The organisation represents the interests of 66 plants in the country.

Cameroon: Aumund France has won a contract to supply three BWZ type bucket elevators with central chain, three BWG type belt bucket elevators and three Samson material feeders to Oyak Çimento’s upcoming plant near Kribi. When commissioned in September 2022, the plant will grind 100t/day of cement and 720t/day of calcined clay. ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (France) is responsible for the overall design, supply and installation of equipment to the plant.

Turkey: Total cement exports raised nearly US$1bn in revenue in 2020. Tamer Saka, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Turk Cement, told the Anadolu Agency that the country exported 30Mt in 2020 making it the world’s second largest cement exporter. He added that the local sector has a production capacity of 100Mt/yr. "The sector has been selling cement to important big projects in the US and they prefer Turkey because of both price and quality,” said Saka.

Turkey: Denmark-based FLSmidth has released details about a new clinker production line it is currently supplying to Bursa Çimento. Work at the site is underway at present covering the line from crushing to clinker cooling. The new line is scheduled to start at the end of 2022. FLSmidth says the equipment it is supplying includes a Hotdisc Combustion Device, which will help increase the substitution rate to 86%, the highest in Turkey. The order also includes an OK Raw Mill, a Rotax-2 kiln, Pfister feeders and new air pollution process filters.

"The modernisation of our Bursa site is a strategic investment, providing us with a more competitive cost base,” said Osman Nemli, General Manager at Bursa Çimento. “But just as important is the entire upgrade which focuses on reducing emissions and power consumption. In this way, we are proactively mitigating future possible environmental regulation."

Last week’s financial results from Çimsa contained a glimmer of hope for the Turkish cement market. Its net sales grew by 27% year-on-year to Euro175m in the first nine months of 2020 and operating profit more than doubled. Crucially, the balance between domestic and export sales tilted back a little toward the local market at a 55/45 ratio rather than 40/60 for the same period in 2019. Oyak Cement, another of the larger local producers, reported a similar rise in sales also. Akçansa Çimento, the joint venture between Sabancı Holding and HeidelbergCement, saw its sales fall slightly so far in 2020 but its profit grew. These financial results are all surprising given the currency and debt crisis the country faced in 2018 and now coronavirus in 2020.

Graph 1: Domestic and export cement sales in Turkey, January – July 2017 – 2020. Source: Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB)

Graph 1 above shows the general picture of the Turkish cement industry for the first seven months of each year to put the data so far in 2020 into context. The general Turkish economy faced problems in the middle of the year when the value of the Turkish Lira dropped sharply in mid-2018 and interest rates rose sharply. Subsequently, annual cement sales fell by over 20% year-on-year to 56.5Mt in 2019. A couple of weeks ago the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB) said that the sector started 2020 optimistically with a recovery in January 2020. Coronavirus then hit, causing a contraction in the domestic market for the next four months. However, the construction market picked up again in June 2020 and this is expected to have continued into August 2020.

The cement sector previously pivoted to exports strongly with nearly a 50% bump up in exports to 11Mt in 2019. 2020 has been similar so far for the export market with a 40% rise year-on-year from January to July 2020 to around 9Mt. Much of these exports have gone to the US with local media and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reporting that the North American country took 18% of Turkey’s Euro840m cement exports from January to September 2020. Focusing on international trade has not come without a price though. In September 2020 the Ukrainian government started an investigation into alleged dumping of cement by Turkish producers. Following a complaint by local producers, the Interdepartmental Commission for International Trade (ICIT) determined that: “imports were made to an extent and under conditions such that they may cause material injury to the domestic producer.” The results of the investigation remain to be seen, but Ukraine had no qualms in 2019 about slapping tariffs onto cement imports from Russia, Belarus and Moldova.

All of this leaves the Turkish cement producers relying, much as previously, on the export market to hold up sales while the domestic market recovers to 2018 levels. This is becoming riskier, given the growing number of rivals exporting cement around the world, particularly from around the Mediterranean, and with more countries like Egypt hoping to do likewise. Yet as long as favourite destinations like the US and Israel keep buying, Turkey should be okay. At home, the question remains whether the growth seen post-coronavirus measures in the spring is a sign of economic recovery or merely pent up demand. The country’s initial coronavirus response was praised internationally but signs of a second wave are present. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed in October 2020 its earlier forecast of a 5% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) for Turkey in 2020. Much of the rest of the world is facing similar contractions in output or worse in 2020 but starting the year from a poor economic position is not enviable.

Italy: Caltagirone Group company Cementir Holding sold 7.7Mt of grey cement, white cement and clinker in the first nine months of 2020, up by 11% year-on-year from 6.9Mt in the first nine months of 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined by 2% over the period, to Euro178m from Euro182m, while sales also declined, by 1% to Euro897m from Euro906m.

One notable region where the trend was reversed was Egypt, where, in spite of a 2.5% fall in cement and clinker volumes, EBITDA rose by 40% to Euro6.81m from Euro4.86m and sales rose by 16% to Euro31.3m from Euro27.1m. EBITDA also rose in the Nordic and Baltic, Turkey, China and Asia-Pacific regions.

Chief executive officer (CEO) and chair Francesco Caltagirone said, “Results significantly improved in the third quarter, with cement up by 19% and EBITDA up by 12% compared to the third quarter of 2019.”

Greece: Titan Cement recorded earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Euro229m in the first nine months of 2020, up by 10% year-on-year from Euro208m in the first nine months of 2019. Its sales fell slightly to Euro1.20bn from Euro1.21bn. The group noted “resilient sales volumes across most of our markets, ” including “strong domestic and export growth in Turkey and improving demand in Brazil.”

Dimitri Papalexopoulos, chair of the group executive committee said, “We are successfully addressing several challenges at the same time: taking care of our people and those around us, delivering improved operating results and accelerating progress against our sustainability ambitions. Despite the uncertain context, we remain confident in the solidity of our business model, based on the nature of construction activity, our track record in facing the pandemic and the resilience and dedication of our people.’’

Turkey: Çimsa’s net sales grew by 27% year-on-year to Euro175m in the first nine months of 2020. Its operating profit more than doubled to Euro37.1m. Local sales grew faster than export sales in the reporting period but export revenue remains greater than domestic revenue. Chief executive officer (CEO) Umut Zenar reflected this when he praised the company’s strong export performance despite the challenges posed by coronavirus.

Uzbekistan: Cement companies produced 7.8Mt of cement in the first nine months of 2020, a rise of 2.6% year-on-year from the same period in 2019. The Trend News Agency reports that the country exported US$24.2m-worth of cement in the period, to Afghanistan, Singapore, Russia, China and Turkey. The value of its cement imports – from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Iran and Russia – exceeded this by more than double at US$870m.

Turkey: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions Turkey has launched a new 14,000m² manufacturing and service centre including four workshop halls and offices in Ankara. The company said that the site will employ 30 people to begin with and produce and assemble steel structures, machines, components and spare and ware parts, including for the cement industry.

Managing director Can Yapan said, “This new manufacturing and service centre enables us to even better meet our customers’ increasing demand for services throughout the entire life cycle of their plants and machines.” He added, “We already started contributing Turkey’s economy with the completion and export of our first manufacturing order in October 2020.”

Plant manager Serhan Usman said, “We want to offer the best possible services to our customers. Our maintenance assistance system and performance and quality monitoring make it easier to plan and forecast plant operation. Drone inspections and 3D plant scanning, or remote inspections and remote condition monitoring are just a few more solutions of our digital service portfolio.”