Localizing basic industries Turkey opens the largest paper factory in Europe

As part of its strategic plans to localize the most important industries, Turkey is preparing to inaugurate the largest paper factory in Europe on an area of ​​658 acres at a total cost of $550 million, with a production capacity of about 730 thousand tons annually, in addition to generating exports worth $200 million.

Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank tweeted on his official account on Twitter that the giant factory had started trial production in preparation for full operation at the end of this year, and Minister Varank explained that the largest factory in Europe would export $200 million, according to his statement: “Did you know that the largest A paper factory in Europe, which will export $200 million and support 800 citizens, has been established in Turkey and has started trial production?

This factory comes at the forefront of the strategic steps taken by the Turkish government in recent years in order to reduce its dependence on imports from abroad, which causes a deficit in the Turkish trade balance despite the fact that exports reached more than 200 billion dollars during the past year, as well as creating thousands of opportunities. work in the country.

The largest in Europe

At the end of September 2017, the Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Kipaş Holding Company, Hanafi Oksuz, announced the start of work to establish the second factory of their paper-making group in the Soke industrial area located in the state of Aydin in western Turkey, after the first factory that entered the production cycle in 2014 in Kahramanmaraş.

And the construction of the giant Kiptas factory on an area of ​​330,000 square meters, of which 100,000 square meters is a closed area. The facility consists of 4 main buildings: a paper machine, a power plant, a raw water treatment plant, in addition to a sewage treatment plant.

The new Kiptas Paper Recycling and Manufacturing Facility will produce about 600,000 tons of paperboard for use in the packaging industry. With the completion of the additional investments, the production volume will reach about 730 thousand tons of cardboard.

With the slogan "We protect our nature by recycling", Kiptas Holding announced the inauguration of the largest recycling and paper-making factory in Turkey and Europe, which aims not only to meet Turkey's need for packaging paper and contribute to reducing the Turkish trade balance deficit, but also to increase Turkish exports by about 200 million dollar.

Localization of the paper industry

Oksuz indicated that the establishment of the factory will contribute to reducing Turkey's imports of paper, and modern technology will be used in paper recycling, in addition to the possibility of exporting approximately $200 million annually, and contributing to achieving important economic gains in the Turkish economy, as well as providing 800 new job opportunities. In the first stage, and about 400 more chances in the later stage.

The factory aims to produce about 425,000 tons of paper by recycling 100% of recycled waste paper annually, which would preserve 6 thousand hectares of forest and add additional value to the Turkish economy, as well as helping to convert to raw materials reusables coming from their own assembly facilities and from domestic and foreign suppliers.

In a related context, the production process at the SEKA Paper Factory in Balıkesir state resumed in mid-2019 after a new investment of $140 million was injected to renovate the facility, which had been closed for more than 19 years, to fulfill Turkey’s desire to increase local paper production and reduce its dependence on imports.

Kibtas Holding

Kiptas’ contribution to the project to build and operate Europe’s largest paper production plant through recycling in Aydin state, western Turkey, amounted to nearly 40% of the total investment amounting to more than half a billion dollars, while 80% of the shares were funded from external financial resources, and 20% The rest are from Turkish financial institutions.

The Kiptas Holding Group, which was established in Kahramanmaras in 1984, is one of the largest industrial groups in Turkey, with annual revenues of more than one billion dollars, annual exports of about 200 million dollars, and the company has more than 11,000 employees.

In addition to its investments in the paper industry and recycling, Kiptas has large investments in various fields in 6 main sectors, perhaps the most prominent of which are agriculture and animal husbandry on a large scale, in addition to its significant contributions in the cement industry, retail, energy, education, transportation and aviation.