Faced with an increasingly-competitive market, Turkish cement producers continue to streamline their operations to cut costs and improve plant efficiency. ABB has a long history of delivering plant optimisation packages to the local production base and its most recent project is for the new Medcem greenfield cement plant which employs the automation specialist’s holistic solution to customised process strategies. By Thomas Marx, ABB, Switzerland.
Turkey is Europe’s single largest cement market and domestic demand expected to continue growing at around 4-5 per cent annually due to the country’s housing and infrastructure needs. Over the next decade local output is expected to reach 100Mta, of which 80Mt will serve domestic requirements. Meanwhile, Turkey is also expected to maintain its position as Europe’s largest cement exporter.
All Turkish cement companies manufacture their products in accordance with EU norms to comply with quality, environmental, and health and safety standards. To meet these requirements, producers have been undergoing a number of extensive modernisation programmes over the past 10 years.
