Anadolu İplik and Tekstil Fabrikaları A.Ş., which has operated in textile sector since the 1940s, continues to invest by following closely the recent developments. Anadolu İplik, which has specialized in the production and trade of yarn, has produced cotton yarn in the production facilities in Çerkezköy, the district of Tekirdağ, with its latest technological machineries since 2003.
Anadolu İplik has implemented its polymerization investment, which is now unique in Turkey, nylon yarn production facilities and POY production line, which is provided from foreign countries as intermediate product. Tuncay Uzun, Chairman of Board of Directors of Anadolu İplik, gave information about the new facilities by organizing a meeting about this subject.
The Most Modern Facilities in Europe
Tuncay Uzun expressed that they produce nylon chips in the factories having a covered area of 55 thousand square meters built on a land of 80 thousand square meters and that the nylon chips production is now unique in Turkey and it was previously imported from abroad. Expressing that the spinning sector is a market requiring high workforce and that they employ 600 people in their new factory built in Çerkezköy, Uzun stated that they were promoted when they built the factory. Uzun added that the raw material, the intermediate and final product annual production capacity of the Anadolu İplik, which has reduced the dependence on foreign market in yarn production, has reached 70 thousand tons in nylon yarn, 13 thousand tons in cotton. Tuncay Uzun also expressed that they have implemented a large production investment to reduce the dependence of Turkey on foreign market for yarn and textile.
Tuncay Uzun said: "We, as Anadolu İplik, have the most modern technology in Europe. We are 7 years ahead of the company which is closest to us in terms of technology. In addition, we produce such a variety of yarns that cannot be produced in a short period of time even by China. This condition provides a great deal of advantage especially in exports. Anadolu İplik ensures that Turkey is different from such big exporter countries as China and Indian only in terms of price-based vicious competition. It adds quality and value to the Turkey's yarn exports.”
Our Target: Exporting half of our production
Pointing out to the fact that Turkey's exports volume increased by 7 - 8 % last year, Mr. Uzun emphasized that the role of yarn is very important in terms of growth. Uzun added that: “Anadolu İplik, which produces especially numerous varieties of yarn in the field of nylon yarn, offers a wide product range such as sportswear, hosiery, underwear, combed cotton and carpet. We have completed fast, high quality and integrated production by producing such raw material as cips, which was previously imported, in our own plants. Our target is to export half of our production in the segments of raw material, semi-finished products and nylon yarn. We manufacture 25 % of the need of polyamidcips that Turkey imports and this figure equals to $ 75 million.”
Stating that they have opened purchase offices in the EU and Far Eastern countries in order to market polyamide chips, Uzun expressed that he investigated the similar plants on site around the world. Uzun continued his speech as follows: “I visited lots of plants for market investigation.
I remarked that there was pessimism in the western countries while the eastern countries were investing. The fact that the European countries think that we could not reach success in this business stimulated us. Despite the fact that we started to manufacture 2 months ago, we have got positive reaction in the market.”
Strategic Raw Materials
Stating that the polyamide cips are one of the strategic textile raw materials, Mr. Uzun expressed that the polyamide cips are especially used in technical textiles and in many other fields such as the production of white goods, food packaging industry etc. "The process of polyamide cips is similar to the continuous yarn production, polyamide fibre made with polyamide cips and fibre made with polyester chips and the continuous yarn production. Only filament drawing process is hot for polyester and cold for polyamide. For the manufacture of nylon 6 yarns, the polyamide chips are firstly melted at 270 degrees in the extruder, and then they are pressed out from the nozzles under high pressure and cooled by the air stream and passed to winding circle. The chips are processed with cold drawing and wound on bobbins in order to prevent static electricity and to get the strength properties as well as preparation elasticity; finally they are ready for sale.'' said Mr.Uzun.
Stating that they planned to establish production facilities in the Far East, Mr. Uzun said that they determined Sri Lanka for this investment. He said that Sri Lanka has a more systematic structure compared to other Far Eastern countries and has increasingly gained importance in the region. "We will manufacture yarn in Sri Lanka and we will buy to the countries in the region. Another factor for choosing Sri Lanka is that it is easy to find qualified personnel. We attach great importance to R & D for improving product quality and innovation and we expand our R & D investments every year. We will continue on the same way in the Far East.'' stated Mr. Uzun.
