BUILDING GROWTH
THROUGH INVESTMENT Turkey’s Limak Group provides the market with clinker, cement, concrete and aggregate, all produced according to international quality standards. The group’s CEO Gültekin Aksüyek spoke to Industry Europe about its continuous commitment to investment with a focus on modernising, increasing output and improving energy efficiency.
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he Limak Cement Group has the third largest manufacturing capacity amongst Turkish companies. It maintains this position through continuous capacity expansion, modernisation and energy efficiency improvements across all its factories. Having begun with the establishment of Limak Construction in 1976, the Limak Group of companies now operates in the tourism, cement, energy, infrastructure, airport management and operations, port management, food and aviation sectors. The group first entered the cement business in 2000 when it purchased the Siirt Kurtalan Cement Factory.
Its interests in the sector grew in 2006 when it bought factories in Ergani and Gaziantep by way of an asset purchase from the Turkish Savings Deposit Insurance Fund. In 2007 it acquired the Urfa cement factory from the Turkerler Group by means of a share purchase. This pattern continued with the acquisition of a cement grinding plant in Bitlis in 2008 and the Mardin-Derik cement grinding plant in 2009. This was followed by the acquisition of four cement factories located in Ankara, Balıkesir, Thrace and Ambarlı as well as 12 ready-mix concrete facilities from Set-Italcementi in 2011. Most recently the
group purchased the Egeçim cement grinding plant located in Manisa. As stated above, the group’s main production activities are in the areas of clinker, cement, concrete and aggregate. Its latest product, CEM PLUS + (flyash cement) was developed and launched from the Balıkesir cement factory and is already selling well.
Position in Turkey and abroad The Limak Group accounted for 11 per cent of the total cement produced in Turkey in 2012 and holds a nearly 12 per cent share of domestic sales as well as 7 per cent of