Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association to work under the name TÜRKÇIMENTO

Dr. Tamer Saka, Chairman of the Board of Directors, stated that, "The cement sector is one of the leading sectors in the development manoeuvre of Turkey. Therefore we, as TURKCIMENTO, say that ‘We are the foundation of this country and we will prevail in its future’".

The Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association (TÇMB) will continue to work with the TÜRKÇIMENTO brand, representing a total of 66 plants and also being an international representative of the Turkish cement industry. Promoting the change of its identity and logo at the launch meeting held on 18 December 2020, the association shared its vision of the future with the public as TÜRKÇIMENTO. The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Tamer Saka, made the following remarks on the change of brand, the strategic goals of the organisation and its vision for the future:

“We've come together to present our new identity and a logo that symbolises it. Emphasising the importance of perceptions, investment and Turkish products, as a cement industry we are protecting our national values and taking them into the future. We've witnessed enormous changes in the 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 the sector with social sensitivity and which generates added value, maintains corporate confidence, invests in human and pioneers in digitalisation, technology and innovation."

New vision, new logo

Stating the tremendous excitement regarding the journey of making more contribution to the economic and social development of Turkey, Dr. Tamer Saka continued:

"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. Considering that new vision requires a new logo, we also changed our identity. Cement is important to humanity because of its benefits and the economy generated by its activities.”

“It has never lost its importance in the establishment of civilisations in the past and in the construction of the future. Without cement, you cannot build schools, hospitals or bridges. Cement is one of the leading sectors in the development manoeuvre initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after the War of Independence. The first cement factory of our country was established 108 years ago. After the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara Cement Company was the first plant of our republican period, established in 1928 with the vision that ‘complete independence can only be achieved through economic independence’ as our great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk expressed. Therefore, as TÜRKÇIMENTO we say that ‘We are the foundation of this country and we will prevail in its future’.”

Dr. Tamer Saka also clarified the main initiatives to be undertaken with a new vision as follows:

“First of all, we are planning a position paper on the city vision. In this document, we’re going to clarify how cities should be in 2050. It will be created with the contribution of participants from different segments, which we consider from different perspectives such as urban planning and socio-economics, and will be a document for our future. The Architecture Awards project will be launched next year. We strive to reward professional architects and university students alike. We are planning to introduce new CSR and digitalisation initiatives.”

Discussing a civil initiative for earthquakes, Dr. Tamer Saka stated that: "Our cement and concrete quality is at world standards. In particular, with the impact of the earthquake regulations that came into force after the 1999 earthquake, we do not see a fundamental problem in the residential builds after that date. The main problem is the housing stock of six million houses. We need to transform them quickly. The Marmara earthquake, in particular, is a national security issue. It's meant to be looked at like this, not just an earthquake. Here is the centre of the economy. There are many factors to be affected beyond economic activities. We have put forward a civil initiative in this regard and implemented it. We came together with 22 NGOs and started to prepare an earthquake action plan. We will share this in the earthquake week beginning 05 March 2021."

Pandemic accelerating the transformation in all areas

The members of the TÜRKÇIMENTO Executive Board, who were connected live to the launch meeting, expressed their support for the future goals of TÜRKÇIMENTO.

Cenker Mirzaoglu, Executive Board Member of TÜRKÇIMENTO expressed his opinion during the online launch meeting as follows:

“Our quality and technology is on a world scale. Today, our capacity has come to the point that will allow Turkey to become the leading player. But most importantly, at the core of our industry, we have the ability to rapidly adapt to change. Currently, the construction sector in Turkey corresponds to 7% of the GDP. The cement industry is one of the most important stakeholders of the construction industry. Under its new identity, the TÜRKÇIMENTO is an umbrella organisation, has always taken charge of the growth of society, the nation and the industry, and has always undertaken a coordinating and unifying mission. Today, we are going through a period of renewal.”

Ali Pastonoglu, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of TÜRKÇIMENTO, stated that the Turkish cement industry wanted to proactively manage the transformation process and said:

"Producing is very important to create added value, but our lifestyle, production perspective, and priorities we focus on are changing and transforming very quickly. Sustainable efficiency and environmental awareness come to the fore. As the Turkish cement industry, we are among the most important players in the world. In such a transformation, we have no intention of letting our position to the flow. We have to take part in and lead the transformation process. Our roof structure, TÜRKÇIMENTO with its new identity, has undertaken this mission. The human resources of the Turkish cement industry are extremely dynamic and strong. When we include capital power, know-how and our entrepreneurial spirit, we are a very effective player in the world. We see the change in our brand and logo as a sign of the beginning of this entire change process."

Nihat Özdemir, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of TÜRKÇIMENTO, said that 2020 was not the best year for the world and Turkey but he expected a gradual improvement as of 2021. "With the pandemic, very important economic events occurred not only in Turkey but also in the world. As the cement and construction industry, our main goal is to overcome this period. As the cement industry, we have been very concerned since March. Many of our factories stopped production. The Turkish cement industry is not only an influential sector in Turkey but also in the world. We rank the second in the world in export. We made the best of this and pushed exports”, he said.

Adil Sani Konukoglu, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of TÜRKÇIMENTO said:

“If you fail to keep up with the change, one day you will have to quit what you do. Someone comes and keeps your work going. The world made a rapid entry into the digital environment with Covid-19. Most of the systems we use now have been in our lives for the last 10 years, but nobody wanted to use them. But with an outbreak, we started to rapidly switch to the digital environment. We have been talking about Industry 4.0 for years, but many sectors did not do anything about it, but started to in this atmosphere. I believe this will be successful in the cement industry. Let all the industrialists keep up with innovation and try to use the technology of the future. Let's make provisions for the future."

Suat ÇALBIYIK, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ÇEIS (Cement Industry Employers’ Association), stated that, "The Turkish cement sector started to realise its ideas with these studies carried out today. According to data of 2019, The Turkish Cement sector is only known as the exporting country despite being Europe's largest and 9th largest manufacturer of the world. However, we have the infrastructure required for innovation. On the other hand, the Covid-19 outbreak gave us the opportunity to remember many values we forgot. It reminded us once again that we must come to terms with nature without declaring war. I believe that from now on, we, as the entire sector, will strive to achieve a carbon footprint of zero that will minimise the damage we cause to nature and the environment."

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/21012021/turkish-cement-manufacturers-association-to-work-under-the-name-trkimento/