Interview with Özlem Karakaş, Business Development and Country Manager for Chemours Türkiye

We had an enjoyable conversation with Özlem Karakaş, Business Development and Country Manager at Chemours Turkey. Karakaş explained Chemours' development and entry process into the Turkish market, described the products and services the company offers to the sector, and shared her views on the paints and coatings industry.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

After completing my secondary education at Beşiktaş Girls' High School, I was accepted to the Chemistry Engineering department at Istanbul University. I deferred my enrollment for one year and went to the United States to improve my English. After graduating from Istanbul University Chemistry Engineering Faculty, I started working in 1993 at Herberts Automotive and Industrial Paints' Turkish facilities. Herberts was a German company, and it was a valuable experience for me to become acquainted with German discipline and to develop within that culture.

Could you tell us about Chemours' development from its founding to the present and about its structure in Turkey?

DuPont acquired Herberts in 1998. Herberts was a very strong company in automotive paints, which made DuPont the number one paints manufacturer in the automotive sector globally. I worked in DuPont's Industrial Coatings division for 13 years. This division consisted of Metal Packaging Coatings, Powder Coatings, Cathodic Electrodeposition, and Commercial Vehicle Coatings. In this division, I first worked as Sales Manager and subsequently as Country Manager. After approximately 17 years in the paints industry, when a Sales Manager position opened in DuPont's Titanium Technologies department, I applied and was selected because I had always been interested in it and it was directly related to paints. Chemours comprises Titanium Technologies, Fluoroproducts and Chemical Solutions divisions. Following Chemours' separation from DuPont, the same team began working within the Chemours organization. We continued our work with exactly the same production facilities, the same team and the same products. Chemours is an American company headquartered in Wilmington. As Titanium Technologies, we have a total of four production facilities: two in the United States, one in Mexico and one in Taiwan. At Chemours Turkey, I serve as Business Development and Country Manager. Ali Muhtar heads the Fluorochemicals and Chemical Solutions department. Our distributor for Titanium Technologies in Turkey is Bayegan, which represents and supports Chemours and its products excellently with its strong sales team.

What are Chemours' products and product groups? Which sectors do you serve? Could you provide information about your products serving the paints and coatings industry?

Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), the product we sell, is a raw material widely used in the paints and coatings, plastics, paper and lamination sectors. Because there is no local producer, we are talking about a very valuable raw material where particularly large international companies are the players. On 1 July 2015, DuPont separated two of its 13 business units and created a new company active on the New York stock exchange under the name Chemours. Chemours is a new company created from DuPont's strong chemistry experience, which has a 200-year history. Among Chemours products, Titanium Dioxide, which has a very large share, is an essential raw material for paints production. In short, Titanium Dioxide is contained in everything white we see around us. As a brand name, Ti-Pure has been increasing its recognition in the sector with each passing day. Titanium Dioxide product is used in 60-65% of Construction and Industrial Coatings production.

What can you tell us about your company's vision, mission and quality policy?

Chemours believes that high-quality products can make human life easier and more helpful. Chemours uses chemistry to make human life easier. Working together with our customers, we bring cooler cars, warmer homes, fresher food and more vibrant colors into their lives. For Chemours, ethical values and safety come before everything else.

How did 2017 go? Could you outline your expectations for 2018, medium-term targets and projects?

Chemours Titanium Technologies increased its capacity by putting a second line into operation at its Mexico – Altamira facility as of May 2016. Our new line was designed to provide greater flexibility in production and to satisfy our customers. In this way, Chemours' TiO2 production capacity reached 1.25 million tonnes and today we are the global leader in production capacity. Global TiO2 demand is directly proportional to global growth rates worldwide. Therefore, TiO2 demand increases every year globally. Although TiO2 is viewed as a commercial product, we must acknowledge that it brings much more to our lives through the value it adds. Chemours aims to add value to its customers with specially designed products suitable for different technologies. We always regard our customers as business partners and provide them with our after-sales support through our technical team based in Belgium with all necessary services. Two years after its founding, Chemours ranked among the world's most successful top 500 companies in 2017 with more than 7,000 employees. Opteon is Chemours' new product and we believe that with its advanced and cutting-edge technology, it can achieve considerable success. 2017 was a very successful year because of high demand for Opteon, our Titanium Dioxide product and our fluoropolymer products. In 2018, we aim to increase this success even further. In Titanium Technologies, we intend to strengthen our cooperation with our customers through new brand agreements and extend it to the long term. Turkey market holds particular importance for Chemours. Each year we are working to increase our presence in the Turkey market and to remain there with healthy growth.

How do you evaluate Turkey's paints and coatings industry? In your opinion, what are the problems facing the paints and coatings sector and what are your suggestions to address these issues?

In my opinion, when I look at paint quality in Turkey today, I see that it is at the level of many European countries and in some products even surpasses them. Unfortunately, in my view, our biggest challenge is our dependence on foreign sources and foreign currency for raw materials. Our raw material inputs are in foreign currency, but paint sales prices are in Turkish Lira, which creates a separate problem. I am concerned that this situation could reduce our current quality levels over the long term. The paints and coatings market is a sector with fierce competition, so I believe that for paint manufacturers to sustain long-term growth without compromising quality is a challenging situation.