Turkey’s biggest cement producer Akçansa, a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding, has opened a waste heat recovery plant at a cost of nearly US$24m to generate nearly 30 percent of the total energy demand for the company’s cement plant in the northwestern province of Çanakkale.

HeidelbergCement, the German partner of the company, is targeting more investment in the Turkish cement market, executives said during a Thursday ceremony at the plant.

“This investment will generate approximately 105mkW in one year, meeting 30 per cent of the cement plant’s needs in Çanakkale,” said Zafer Kurtul, Sabancı Holding’s chief executive, at the opening ceremony of the waste heat recovery plant.

“It will prevent nearly 60,000t of carbon emissions each year,” Kurtul said. Noting that the country needs to slash its current account deficit, which is largely due to energy imports, he said: “We should have more such plants.”

Having partnered with Sabancı 15 years ago in the cement sector, HeidelbergCement is targeting more investments in Turkey, said Heildelberg board chairman Bernd Scheifele, speaking to the Daily News on the sidelines of the meeting. “Turkey and Germany are economically growing in Europe and we are interested in more investments together with Sabancı,” he said.