The Oyak Group has issued a statement on the $1 billion investment that was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a recent rally in Zonguldak.
The Oyak Mining Metallurgy Group, Turkey's largest integrated steelmaker, aims to boost the use of local resources in production, steel production capacity and efficiency. This initiative is to improve the use of current technology and strengthen backward integration and to increase competitive power with the new projects it will carry out in its Erdemir production complex.
Touching on the significance of these investments for both Turkey and the future objectives of the group itself, Oyak General Manager Süleyman Savaş Erdem said, "With the actualization of new investments, we will support the competitiveness of our national industry and our group in international markets in terms of diversity and cost."
Erdem pointed out the importance of these investments, which will help the Turkish steel industry that currently ranks eighth in global steel production.
"We attach importance to strengthening the position of our country and contributing to this goal in the steel industry, which is one of the top priority and strategically important industries of nations. With the investments we have planned in this scope, our Ereğli plant will become sufficient in the production of raw materials and the production capacity of our factory will be boosted," Erdem stated.
"At the same time, while the development in the digital industry is kept up with, the efficiency of our factory will be increased. As the Oyak Mining Metallurgy Group, we are aware that we have a pioneering role in the national industry beyond product technology. While making these investments thanks to our strong balance sheet structure, our strong product portfolio and the power of our competent human resources, we will also fulfill our duties regarding the implementation of new technologies and human resource training," he said. Oyak Mining Metallurgy Group Chairman Toker Özcan stated that they have become the most ambitious player in the global steel market in terms of resource utilization efficiency and they will grow the gap with their competitors by protecting and strengthening this position. "The competition environment has been moved to a different ground with the increase of the interventions of the states. We believe that the new ground will be permanent and we have designed the investment package that will strengthen our group in all dimensions within the scope of our works," he added. According to Özcan, the $1 billion investments to be made in the Ereğli facilities include 800,000 tons per year in a coke production plant, a 5 million tons per year sinter production plant investment, a new blast furnace, the renovation and modernization of a steel house, the modernization of a port and the modernization of production lines in the automotive industry according to Industry 4.0.