Cement, Energy and Environment

History of the cement production in Turkey dates back to 1911 . The first kiln established had a capacity of 20.000 tons/year. Today Turkish Cement Industry is one of the major players in Europe as well as in the World. According to the latest statistics, Cement Production in Turkey ranks number one in Europe and number five in the World. Besides, last year Turkish exports of cement and clinker became the biggest in the World. Turkish Cement Exporters are selling to more than 80 different countries with an annual rate over 20 million tons. Cement Industry in Turkey has 65 cement plants; 48 of which are full cycle plants and the remaining are the grinding units. In the last seven years, inspired with the high growth potential of the domestic and the neighboring markets, entrepreneurs from Turkey and abroad invested intensively for the new capacities. Hence the total installed production capacity of clinker augmented to 64 million tons per annum. Moreover taking the opportunity of the favorable economical climate since the last two decades, some international cement groups have started to enter first in early 1990's which was later followed by many others. Today besides the Turkish Entrepreneurs foreign cement groups from France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Ireland and TURKISH CEMENT SECTOR by Adnan IGNEBEK91LI, Chairman, Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association Portugal are the major players of the Turkish Cement Industry. Strength & Opportunities of the Sector • Products with high quality (CE Mark) and performances • High Raw Materials Resources • Proximity to the major export markets • Trained & qualified manpower • Modern production technologies • Easy access to the sea with the long sea shores • Fully adopted to the European norms and standards on production, environment, Health & Safety issues • Majority of the plants have Quality Management and Environmental Management Systems (ISO 9001 & ISO 14000 certificates) • High requirements for housing and infrastructure investments • With the beginning of alignment process with EU, there is an expectation of increase in public investments • Concrete roads to be applied on the roads of heavy traffic National Economy After the consecutive remarkable growth performance of the last five years, Turkish Economy has first slowed down in 2008 and later experienced a recession in 2009. The global crisis which have started with the mortgage crisis in U.S.A midst of 2007, continued to show its detrimental impacts throughout the years 2008-2009. Besides USA, all occidental countries showed extensive efforts to slow down the effects of the crisis. Global crisis in EU is still very influential and recently has unveiled new risks and threats in some Euro Zone Countries . Thanks to its resilience gained during the last Banking Crisis of the 2001 , Turkish financial sector, has successfully managed to mitigate the possible unfavorable impacts of the global cns1s. Yet our economy was still hit by the impacts of the crisis particularly from Europe. According to the Turkish Statistics, in 2009 Turkish GOP shrank by 4.7% for the first time after the big financial crisis of the year 2001 . Thus, the GOP per capita has also lowered to 8.590 USA Dollar. When it is looked at Sectors level, the highest contraction was experienced in construction industry by 16.3%. Cement domestic consumption in terms of volumes did not vary much but the serious reduction in prices indicated a drop of 20% at GOP level. The inflation rate in 2009 stated as 6.53% by the Turkish Statistical Institute which is the lowest value since 1969. Nevertheless the high unemployment rate continued to be the major problem of the Economy. Unemployment rate increased to 16.6 % in urban areas and reached to 8.9 % in rural.