Combining success and sustainabilty Çimsa

COMBINING SUCCESS

and sustainability

Çimsa is highly regarded as one of the leading companies within the Turkish cement industry. Victoria Hattersley talks to general manager Mrs Nevra Özhatay about the company’s dedication to maintaining the highest quality standards, and puts the spotlight on its pioneering sustainability programme.

Çimsa, a subsidiary of the leading Turkish conglomerate Sabancı

Holding, stands out from other cement companies in Turkey thanks to its environmental focus and use of the purest raw materials available: its world-renowned White Portland Cement is described by general manager Mrs Özhatay as “one of the world’s best quality cements since 1989.” Alongside the white cement, the company’s range includes calcium aluminate and grey cement.

Established back in 1972, today Çimsa has extensive Turkish production and development facilities, including five integrated plants in Mersin, Eskişehir, Kayseri, Niğde and Afyonkarahisar, 31 ready-mixed concrete facilities, a grinding facility in Ankara, a cement packing facility in Marmara terminal and cement packaging facility in Malatya.

But the company is not just a leader in the domestic market: as one of the world’s foremost white cement producers, it has terminals in Hamburg (Germany), Trieste (Italy), Sevilla (Spain), Alicante (Spain), Famagusta (T.R.N.C.), Constanza (Romania) and Novorossiysk (Russia). Furthermore, according to Mrs Özhatay, “In the markets where we don’t have terminals we use the most effective logistics channels and satisfy our customers’ needs completely and on time.” As a result, it exports to more than 65 countries across seven continents and in 2016 it produced a total of 5.6 million tonnes of cement. Its biggest export markets include Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and America.

Mrs Özhatay goes on to highlight the core values that have made Çimsa, according to its tagline, ‘The Name of the Formula’: “This refers to our very dynamic and flexible structure offering our business partners solutions that have been meticulously formulated and consist of segment-specific performance focusing on the needs of each sector, rather than product portfolios consisting of a single product; this makes your prescriptions more flexible and offers you a wide playing field.”

Within the framework of ‘The Name of the Formula’ concept, Çimsa groups white cement and special products into three main product families: Çimsa Super White, Çimsa Aluminates and Çimsa White Concrete.

ongoing innovation and investment

A programme of continuous innovation has been one of the keys to maintaining Çimsa’s competitive edge, as Mrs Özhatay explains: “At Çimsa, we have always introduced special products to the industry. We have searched for ways to build tomorrow without losing our energy and enthusiasm while continuing to develop different and unique products.”

Çimsa is one of the few companies in the world with such a strong focus on both special cement and R&D. In fact, on 28 February 2017 the Çimsa Cement Research and Application Centre

became the first official R&D Centre within the Turkish cement industry to be certified by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. As our interviewee informs us, this Centre, known as ‘the Formula Centre’ has three key functions: preparing highly profitable new product development programmes; providing on-site lab support to customers, both at home and abroad, using Çimsa cement products; and creating added value for market development and new application areas, while keeping users informed about new Çimsa products developed at the Formula Centre. These new products include two world firsts: self-cleaning White Cement and Antibacterial White Cement.

In addition to funding its innovation on an ongoing basis, Çimsa also regularly invests in expanding production capacity. At the end of 2015, for example, it invested 55 million USD into its Eskişehir plant. Through this, the plant’s kiln No.1 will now be capable of producing 415,000 tonnes of white clinker each year. This has greatly increased the plant’s flexibility, and thus its ability to adapt to fluctuating global market conditions; it has also boosted Çimsa’s overall position in the global white cement market.

A second important investment, which went into increasing the production capacity of the Afyon Cement Plant, totaled 165 million USD. Through this investment, Çimsa will be able to triple its production capacity by reaching 1.5 million tonnes of clinker production capacity annually.

Sustainability-focused approach

It’s important to note, however, that all of the above – innovation, investments, product development etc – goes hand-in-hand with the issue that is central to all Çimsa’s operations: reducing its environmental footprint. As the general manager responsible for Sustainability at Çimsa, Mrs Özhatay is able to give us a detailed insight into how this influences the company’s day-to-day business operations.

“We, one of the leading cement and construction material producers in Turkey, carrying out all of our business and operations with the aim of a sustainable future. To relate sustainability aims with corporate responsibilities and to include related performance indicators to tracking systems are integral parts of Çimsa’s sustainability management system. We accept climate change as the most important

topic that threatens the lives of future generations and we continue to fight against it both as Çimsa and also by actively participating in multilateral initiatives.”

In line with this approach, Çimsa has been Turkey’s first and only member of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) since it joined in 2013. CSI – an initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) – creates a unique platform for its members where they can share information on national, regional and international levels, and jointly decide on best practices.

The results of the company’s focus on sustainability can also be seen within the context of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), winning the ‘CDP Turkey 2016 Climate Leader’ Category A- award in light of the results of its climate change report. They also extend to its obtaining various green building certifications, including LEEDS.

“Particularly important is the certification we have achieved for Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) product use in the US and EU markets, which constitute 75–80 per cent of our special cement product users. In this context we carried out EPD for our super white cement and calcium aluminate cement products in 2015, improving their usage areas and decreasing their overall environmental impact. At the end of the project, our Isıdaç40 range became the first EPD certified calcium aluminate cement and Çimsa Super White was the second.”

Environmental protection is also evident in Çimsa’s annual reporting. This year, it announced its very first ‘Integrated Annual Report’ in line with the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. Within this report the company was able to lay out its integrated approach and sustainability vision at all stages of the production and development cycle.

It’s also worth pointing out that Çimsa’s sense of corporate responsibility does not stop with the environment: in 2016 a total of 11 million USD was invested into the environment, occupational health and safety and education. “We have taken on the principle of providing support to the education of young people and contribute to the development of children through the ‘Summer Kids’ social responsibility project that has been running since 2011. We also donate to the Financial Literacy and Accession Association for every Integrated Annual Report shared with our stakeholders.”

moving onwards and upwards

Looking ahead, Çimsa plans to maintain its leading position in Turkey by searching out more opportunities here, as well as continuing its international growth – always, of course, in line with its sustainability goals.

As Mrs Özhatay concludes: “Turkey is a considerable dynamic market for the cement sector due to the increasing building capacity and need. As a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding, we are growing and improving as a company by investing in innovation and R&D. We believe we will build on our leading position in both the local and international areas and we will keep our pioneering role in the sector through our performance, innovative solutions and sustainability vision.” n