Expressing that the investments made by SASA in its lands in Adana reached approximately 3,2 billion dollars, Dr. Şeker said, "All our subsequent investments will be in Yumurtalık for the next 10 years."
SASA, which produces raw materials for the healthcare, textile, automotive, and packaging industries within the body of Erdemoğlu Holding, has reached the stage of completing new investments with a total cost of 3,2 billion dollars on its campus in Adana. In addition to the fiber, chips, and POY facilities, which were commissioned previously, the fiber facility with a capacity of 1000 tons/day and the chips facility with a capacity of 1000 tons/day, and the PTA facility with an annual capacity of 1 million 750 thousand tons, which will be produced for the first time in Turkey, will start production this year.
The company is waiting for the bureaucratic processes to be completed in order to start investments in the port, 2,5 million ton PP (polypropylene) facility, refinery, and aromatic chemicals that Turkey needs, which it will establish on an area of 11 million square meters in Adana's Yumurtalık district. The region must first be declared a 'special industrial zone' in order for the facilities with a total investment amount of 20 billion dollars to start.
Dr. Mehmet Şeker, Erdemoğlu Holding and SASA Board Member, stated that the investments made by SASA in its lands in Adana have reached approximately 3,2 billion dollars and said, "We will complete all of them and start their production this year." Explaining that they have reached a 'salable product capacity' of 2,3 million tons with the said investments, Dr. Şeker said, "Our PTA production of approximately 1 million 750 thousand tons will start as well. After that, hopefully, if God allows, we will speed up our work on the Yumurtalık side.”
Mentioning that they have filled the entire 1,5 million square meter area that they can use for investment in the 2,5 million square meter area on the SASA campus, Dr. Şeker provided the following information: "All our subsequent investments will be in Yumurtalık, covering the next 10 years." Underlining that they expect the region to be declared a 'special industrial zone' for investment in Yumurtalık, Dr. Şeker continued as follows: "One of Turkey's biggest shortcomings is the lack of a 'ministry of investment'. We are engaged in almost all of the municipalities, local governments, governorships, non-governmental organizations, and ministries. Therefore, as there is no 'ministry of investment,' when we deal with everything, things take much longer. We need to get a letter, a document from everywhere. However, this country needs such a ministry very fast."
"WHATEVER WE IMPORT, WE HAVE TO PRODUCE"
Pointing out that Turkey can only get rid of the problems it is experiencing by 'producing,' Dr. Şeker made the following assessment: "If you are to beat inflation, you will beat it by producing. Yes, let us save, but we cannot get results just by saving. The actual big deal is different. If you increase your exports from 250 billion dollars to 350-450-500 billion dollars, and if you keep your imports down and produce your raw materials by yourself, nothing will happen to you, regardless of whether the dollar or interest rates increase. The problem is that we are unable to produce. There are also serious obstacles to production. Obstacles of ministries and a number of problems opposed by civil societies... This country needs to overcome them. Whatever we import, we need to produce it. For example, we import PTA. When our PTA facility is put into operation, we will cut imports worth 1,1 billion dollars."
"WE HAVE INDIAN, SLOVENIAN, AND GERMAN EMPLOYEES AT SASA"
Stating that there are thousands of applications to get employed at SASA, Dr. Şeker explained that some of them came from foreign countries. Dr. Şeker said, “We have employees from abroad; India, Slovenia, Germany. More than 2 thousand of our 13-14 thousand employees, including approximately 9 thousand subcontractors, are foreigners. We are bringing experienced engineers from abroad for products such as PTA, which will be produced for the first time in Turkey. We are working to increase their knowledge and experience by adding our own engineers to this experienced staff. We think it is necessary to use our human resources more efficiently in order to be Only Domestic, Only National."
"We will switch to artificial intelligence by 60-70 percent"
Explaining that they are in discussions with the world's leading companies on artificial intelligence, Dr. Şeker said, “We have accelerated our work on using artificial intelligence. There is a daily production of 1,050 tons. Receiving the products, having them go through quality control, packaging them, turning them into yarn, repackaging them, and taking them to the storehouse are all carried out by a robotic system. I hope that in the upcoming years, we will have switched to artificial intelligence at 60-70 percent on the production, logistics, and human resources side at SASA.
Source of the News: NB Ekonomi Newspaper Adana Regional Supplement p. 36 - 37
