Eti Aluminum, which started its new rolling mill investment in Konya Seydişehir, aims to purchase the first product in 2025 in the new facility, where it will have the opportunity to produce hot and cold rolling mills. The new rolling mill, which will be implemented with an investment of 3 billion liras, has claimed that it will provide 350 million dollars of support to the closing of the current account deficit and provide employment for 285 people.
Eti Aluminum, one of the Cengiz Holding group companies, stated that while investing in new facilities, on the other hand, it continues to break new ground in the sector with its technology investments and R&D studies. The company, which started to invest in a new rolling mill in Konya Seydişehir a short time ago, claimed that it will implement the new facility where it will produce hot and cold rolling mills, with an investment of 3 billion liras.
Explaining that they focus on producing products that will reduce foreign dependency in raw material imports, Eti Aluminum General Manager Mehmet Arkan said, “We continue our production with technology investments and R&D studies that we have added to our company's half-century experience. While we meet 82 percent of the domestic market with 10 thousand tons of aluminum production, we prevent imports of 250 million dollars every year with high added value and domestic production. With our new rolling mill investment, we will increase this figure to 600 million dollars and provide additional employment for 285 people.” said.
Noting that the import of aluminum rolled products in Turkey has reached 170 thousand tons in recent years, Arkan said:
“For this, the amount of foreign currency paid abroad exceeds 600 million dollars. We avoid this; While ensuring supply security in strategic sectors such as the defense industry, we started a new rolling mill investment in Seydişehir in order to produce aluminum products used in aircraft fuselages, as raw material for armor materials and in the ship industry. In this rolling mill, we are planning to produce hot and cold rolled products with a width of 2,5 meters, which is especially needed by the defense industry. We will start with 100 thousand tons of production; however, our production capacity will be able to reach 200-250 thousand tons. On the other hand, with the 'Ground Alumina Unit' added to the aluminum production facility in our Seydişehir facility, we will produce for the first time special alumina, all of which are imported in our country. In Turkey, we aim to reach an annual production capacity of 40 thousand tons in special alumina, which was developed by our colleagues and we will start production in the third quarter of this year.”
It will recover 250 tons of lithium every year
Explaining that they have come a long way in their R&D studies, Arkan stated that they are working to recover lithium from the residual product of bauxite. Arkan continued:
“Lithium, as you know, is one of the most important metals used in electric vehicle batteries. We are the first in the world to attempt to recover lithium from bauxite; That's why we applied for a patent 1 year ago. We realized the first production phase and sent it to TUBITAK Marmara Research Center (MAM). We got positive results and started pilot productions. We will start operating at full capacity next year and recover 250 tons of lithium from residual product each year. Apart from lithium, we continue our efforts to acquire rare earth elements.”
Target, green aluminum
Arkan stated that as a result of all of Eti Aluminum's efforts, they are progressing rapidly towards their goal of producing 'green aluminum' and said, “In addition to our Oymapınar Hydroelectric Power Plant, we have built four solar power plants with an installed capacity of 163 MW on the facility land. Thus, we have been providing all of the electricity we have used in production from renewable sources since last year.”
Stating that they planted more than 170 trees in total with the afforestation work they carried out at the factory site to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Arkan added that thanks to these investments, they reached a gas emission level 50 percent lower than the rate determined by the EU.
Eti Aluminum, which was founded in 1967 and started production in 1973, has been operating under the roof of Cengiz Holding, one of the leading groups of the industry, since 2005. More than 700 million dollars have been invested in the facilities, which have accelerated their renovation, capacity increase and technology investments after being acquired from the Privatization Administration. Thanks to all these investments, the products produced in Eti Aluminum, which has the only integrated facility in Turkey that can produce from mining to end products, are used in a wide range of areas from window profiles to airplanes, from tourism to defense industry.