Şişecam Announces Two New Investments

Şişecam Announces Two New Investment Projects The official inauguration of the TR8 furnace at Şişecam Ankara Plant, which has made Polatlı one of Europe's largest flat glass production bases, took place with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The ceremony was attended by Vice President Fuat Oktay, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli, Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Şişecam Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman, Şişecam General Manager Görkem Elverici, Şişecam executives and Şişecam Ankara Plant employees. At the event, Şişecam announced that it will invest in two new float lines exceeding TRY 4 billion for the production of architectural glass and automotive raw glass in Turkey. Speaking at the inauguration, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated: "Şişecam's consistently increasing market share over 86 years demonstrates the importance the company attaches to production, exports and healthy growth. The Ankara production facility, whose official inauguration we are attending today, forms a new link in Şişecam's global vision. Just as in all our strategies, we wish to meet domestic demand for quality glass products from our own internal market. I believe that Şişecam, with its extensive experience, advanced technology, qualified personnel and strong capacity, can meet this need." He continued his remarks as follows: "It is commendable that Şişecam maintains its dynamism through R&D activities conducted at its Science, Technology and Design Centre. With the technology it has developed against viruses and bacteria on glass surfaces, Şişecam has assumed a game-changing role. Şişecam's initiatives, which contribute to the green economy through recycling projects, are strong indicators of its determination to remain at the top. Through its global production network, Şişecam has demonstrated that it deserves the support it receives from the state and gives back far more to our nation. Every industrialist in this country who builds, produces, exports and provides employment for our people deserves a place in our hearts."

One of Five Highest-Capacity Flat Glass Investments Among Ongoing Global Projects

Şişecam Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman stated: "Today, Şişecam operates in 43 facilities across 4 continents and 14 countries, and with 22,000 employees, delivers its value-added products to more than 150 countries. Şişecam continues to add value to Turkey and its stakeholders through continuous investments and products. To meet the rapidly growing flat glass demand in our country, we have decided to invest in an architectural glass float line with a daily capacity of 1,200 tonnes. We will not only invest in the line itself. We will also add a new facility to our existing plants and build a completely new factory. With its high capacity, this float line, which has no equivalent in either America or Europe, is one of the five flat glass investments with the highest capacity among ongoing global projects today. Upon completion of this greenfield investment, our float production capacity in Turkey will increase by 30 percent, reaching a volume of 2.6 million tonnes. Our investment will play an important role in meeting domestic demand and support exports of the sectors we supply, while also strengthening Şişecam's strong position as Europe's flat glass leader." he said. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman emphasized that the automotive raw glass float line with a daily capacity of 750 tonnes to be built in Kırklareli is among the world's few examples with high capacity, and spoke about the investment as follows: "Our float line, which we will implement in Kırklareli to meet automotive raw glass requirements in the most efficient way, will have a net width of 4.8 metres, above standard. Thanks to this line width, when it comes on stream, the amount of glass that can be extracted from the line will increase while the glass draw speed remains unchanged. The line, specially designed to produce thin glass, will also provide high production efficiency with this feature. Such an investment is the result of Şişecam's pioneering vision and technological competencies as a game-changer in its fields of operation. Because the bulk of automotive raw glass production will be transferred to the new wide float line, our existing Kırklareli TR1 Float line, which currently produces automotive glass, will be able to focus on architectural glass production with higher efficiency. We plan to undertake the cold repair of our TR1 Float line and upgrade it, increasing its capacity to daily levels of 1,000 tonnes. The automotive glass business line having a float line with technical production infrastructure dedicated to automotive glass will directly support the growth of our automotive glass operations and our automotive replacement glass export initiatives." he said. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman stated that Şişecam demonstrated its commitment to high capacity, efficiency and competencies while implementing these two major investments, also in terms of project completion timelines, saying: "The time from the design of a flat glass line to its commissioning typically takes 25 to 30 months. However, Şişecam aims to complete the automotive raw glass float line in 18 months and the architectural glass float line in 24 months. This is a highly ambitious target. Such strong objectives and challenging projects can only be accomplished within Şişecam's capabilities. Şişecam, which introduced float production technology to Turkey on September 5, 1981, and was the sole possessor of this competency 40 years ago, which no other enterprise in the Balkans and developing countries had at that time, I am proud to say that Şişecam continues to maintain its position of 'being able to do what others cannot' 40 years later." he said. Calling attention to Şişecam's strong position in the global glass and chemicals industries, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman made the following statements: "Today, in terms of production capacity, we are the world's second-largest manufacturer in the household glass product segment. We are among the top five producers in the flat glass and glass container sectors. Beyond being the world's eighth-largest soda producer, we are also a global leader in chromium chemicals. While Şişecam advances towards its goal of becoming one of the world's three largest producers in its core business areas, we take pride in representing Turkey across a wide geography. In Turkey, we operate in many different business lines, from flat glass, household glass products, automotive glass and glass containers to glass fibre and glass recycling, and from mining to soda and chromium chemicals production." We Have Invested Nearly TRY 10 Billion in Our Country Over the Last 5 Years Stating that Şişecam, the founder of the Turkish glass industry, will continue to make investments that create sustainable value for all stakeholders and support the growth and exports of the sectors it supplies, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman said: "Despite the uncertainty and exceptional conditions created by the global pandemic across the world, we continued our investments without interruption within the scope of our priority to meet Turkey's glass demand and create value for its economy. By prioritizing the demand created in the domestic market, we significantly reduced exports and supplied approximately 90 percent of the flat glass production we carried out in Turkey to the domestic market. We completed the cold repair of our 240,000-tonne capacity furnace in Yenişehir and restarted it with a TRY 400 million investment. In the coming period, we will adopt the same approach, and while expanding our company's global footprint through strategic moves in the right areas, we will continue to invest in Turkey and create sustainable value for our stakeholders. The amount of cold repairs, technology adaptation and new investments we made in Turkey over the last 5 years is close to TRY 10 billion. In the coming years, we will have new investments in Turkey, and annual routine investments of at least TRY 1 billion will be made for the adaptation of our existing facilities with developing technology and cold repair processes. I wish to state that we are continuing our work to announce further new investments worth billions of lire to Turkey within the next two years." Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kırman also made the following statements regarding the Ankara Plant's second furnace investment, whose official inauguration took place: "The second furnace with an annual capacity of 240,000 tonnes, which we implemented at our Ankara Plant and could only officially inaugurate today due to the global pandemic, is our latest new investment implemented in Turkey. With the commissioning of the second furnace investment, Şişecam has made Polatlı one of Europe's largest flat glass bases. Our Ankara plant, which has reached an annual production capacity of 540,000 tonnes, has increased the number of our flat glass furnaces in Turkey to eight and brought our global flat glass production capacity to an annual level of 3.5 million tonnes. With our new investment, the total number of employees we provide employment for in Polatlı has exceeded 300. Glass is a strategic material that produces solutions to globally critical issues such as environment, climate, energy and health, and shapes the future. In 2022, the world is preparing to celebrate International Year of Glass, declared by the United Nations, to emphasize this strategic importance of glass, which has now entered every aspect of our lives. We believe in the future of glass, which has a 5,000-year history, and we continue to work tirelessly to further strengthen our pioneering role in this journey of development." he said.