The meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Turkey Cement and Cement Products Council was held via video conference with the high level of participation of industry representatives under the chairmanship of TOBB Board Member Şaban Aziz Karamehmetoglu and Tamer Saka, Turkey Cement and Cement Products Council President.​

TOBB Board Member Şaban Aziz Karamehmetoglu told the Council Members in his opening speech that since the beginning of the pandemic, TOBB has evaluated all requests from the Sector Councils, passed the issues first-hand to the relevant Ministries, made attempts to regulate force majeure scope to include the entire cement and cement products sector, and worked to leave these difficult days behind together by mobilizing all its resources.

Azizoğlu stated that the Heads of the Sector Council brought together the most prominent problems in their sectors and their solution ideas, communicated these problems to the Ministers via videoconferences, and that a comprehensive and efficient meeting took place, and that the problems were sorted and communicated to the relevant Ministries as a result of the meeting and that the issues were followed up by them.

Tamer Saka, Turkish Cement and Cement Products Council President, said in his opening speech, which evaluated the year 2020 in numbers, that the whole world had undergone a tough test because of the pandemic, but that as the Turkish Cement sector, they performed successfully despite this. Underlining that their priority during this period is the health and safety of their employees, Saka stated that they are one of the sectors least affected by the pandemic with the measures taken quickly.

– 2020 cement sector in numbers

Tamer Saka pointed out that production of factories in 2020 increased by 23.1% to 51 million tons in the first nine months compared to last year, while domestic sales increased by 18.2% to 39 million tons, but these figures still indicate a low level for the sector. In the first 11 months of 2020, cement exports increased by about 50% to 15.5 million tons, Clinker exports increased by 23.8% to 13.5 million tons, and they predicted that this figure would reach around 30 million tons by the end of the year, Saka said, adding that export revenues increased by 25.9% to more than $1 billion in the 11-month period.

Saka said that according to central bank data, house prices increased by 27% in 2020, 15 points above inflation, the housing construction material cost index announced by TURKSTAT increased by 16.5% in the same period, and cement prices did not increase even as much as inflation. In this context, the share of cement and concrete in residential construction together can be no more than 7%, and when only the cement used in this account is considered, Saka pointed out that its share in the construction is 3-4%, and it can be clearly seen that the increase in house prices has nothing to do with cement and concrete.

– Volkan Bozay elected Council Vice President

Turkish Cement CEO Volkan BOZAY was elected by the vote of the council members to replace İsmail Bulut as Council Vice President.