A global leader in cement Cimsa Cimento

A GLOBAL LEADER IN CEMENT

A member of the Sabanci Cement Group, the Turkish company Cimsa Cimento is one of the world’s most well-known producers of cement and ready-mixed concrete. It has a presence in more than 50 countries and continues to invest in modernisation and sustainability in order to enhance its international reputation. Industry Europe looks at the success it has achieved over the past few years.

When Industry Europe last featured Cimsa Cimento in 2007, the company had completed an extensive domestic investment programme and was turning its attention to international expansion. In the years since then it has been successful in this aim, increasing its exports, although it continues to invest in modernisation both at home and abroad.

In 2007, Cimsa already had several manufacturing sites in its domestic market of Turkey, including cement production facilities in Mersin, Eskişehir, Kayseri and Niğde, and grinding-packaging facilities in its Ankara, Malatya and Marmara terminals. Added to this, it was also running international terminals in Spain, Germany, Cyprus and the Middle East. In 2009 it added to this with the establishment of production in Russia (Novorossysk) and Italy (Trieste). In 2011, it commenced operations at a new plant in Alicante, Spain.

Cimsa has been active in the cement industry since 1975 when it was founded in Mersin, Turkey. Three years on, its production volumes had already risen to one million tonnes and it is now the national leader in cement production. Today 41 per cent of its shares are traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange and the past five years or so have seen some excellent financial results. Its annual turnover is in the region of 600 million TL and its clinker production has reaches 5 million tonnes per year. In 2012 cement exports reached 16 million tonnes.

Production profile

Cimsa’s activities cover both cement and ready-mix operations including white cement, grey cement, ready mixed concrete, masonry cement and aggregate. It has several branded products, including its Cimsa Super White Portland cement which has a particularly high strength and does not require a steam cure thanks to its ability to gain this high pressure strength in a short period of time. Its high bending strength makes it ideal for use in concretes reinforced with fibre and it can greatly increase the durability of buildings.

In the area of ready-mixed concrete, Cimsa offers standard products as well as a number of ‘special products’. An example of the latter is its ViskoBeton (self-settling concrete) which has many characteristics that make it superior to conventional concrete. It is automatically spread without decomposition despite its fluidity and without the need to be compressed with a vibrator. It leaves a smooth surface without gaps.

Another important activity is packaging: at its Mersin, Kayseri, Niğde and Malatya plants in Turkey, Cimsa runs packaging machines, palletisers and filling lines for big-bags, kraft sacks and silo-busses.

Cimsa has always been something of a pioneer in its field. For example, it was the first company in Turkey to develop the calcium aluminate cement, also known as fire cement. This has a number of special properties, including a high heat of hydration which means it can be used in temperatures as low as -10 oC.

One of the most important new products introduced by Cimsa in the past few years is Super Bims, which is manufactured at the

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Nigde plant. This is a building material with high heat and noise insulation performance which is fire and earthquake resistant and environmentally friendly. It is used for interior and exterior walls as an alternative to brick and gas concrete.

Continuous expansion

In the years since our last feature, Cimsa has been continuously modernising and updating its capacity across all its manufacturing plants, in line with its strategy of expanding its global customer base. In 2010 it modernised its Mersin production plant, replacing the existing planet type clinker cooling system with an FLS SF-cooler type grid cooler system. Production capacity was thus increased from 3400 tonnes to 4000 tonnes per day.

Sustainability has been one of the key factors behind investment in recent years. A particularly important development was the establishment of a waste heat recovery plant at Mersin in April 2012. This allows the company to utilise waste heat and gases by converting them into electricity to the amount of some 9MW per year.

Furthermore, in order to reduce dependency on the volatile and unpredictable coke prices, Cimsa has a hot disc project in Eskisehir which allows it to decrease the consumption of fossil fuels without losing clinker production quality. Thanks to these and other projects, alternative fuel usage increased from just 4.8 per cent in 2011 to over 16 per cent in 2012.

These investments have certainly paid off, and Cimsa’s facilities have received a number of awards over the years in areas such as safety and international presence. In 2010, for example, its Inegol Ready Mixed Concrete Plant was awarded the ‘Blue Hardhat Occupational Safety Award’, while the AdanaZeytinli Ready Mixed Concrete Plant received the ‘International Representation Award’.

Cimsa will continue to improve its product offering and invest in upgrading its plants. Whilst the global financial crisis had an effect on its export business, as it did with every company in this field, things are now very much on the up. It expects to see strong growth in the Russian market and in South America, where the World Cup in Brazil should boost demand for its products. n