Şişecam Group’s net sales increase by 24 percent in first half of 2018

Şişecam Group announced financial results for the first half of 2018. Şişecam’s consolidated net sales reached 6.8 billion TRY in the first half, with an increase of 24 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The group reported a net profit of 1.6 billion TRY with an increase of 93 percent for the same period.

In the first half, Şişecam, a group with manufacturing activities in 13 countries in three continents and sales all over the world, produced 2.4 million tonnes of glass, 1.2 million tonnes of soda ash and 1.8 million tonnes of industrial raw materials.

In a statement on the half-year financial results, Şişecam Group Vice Chairman and CEO Prof. Ahmet Kırman said, “Our consolidated net sales have reached 6.8 billion TRY. The share of our international sales representing the total amount of exports from Turkey and sales from overseas production has been 59 percent in our consolidated sales. Thanks to ongoing efforts to optimize the cost structure and the geographical distribution of production activities, consolidated EBITDA has reached 2.2 billion TRY in the same period.”

Şişecam Group reported total investments of 1.2 billion TRY in the first half of 2018.

“While boosting our revenue and profitability in the first half, we have made significant investments supporting our long-term sustainable growth,” Kırman said. “During this period, we concluded two acquisitions, one in Italy and the other in India, with a view to improve our effectiveness in existing markets. We have taken the position to be the principal shareholder in our flat glass subsidiary in India, which is one of the most attractive emerging markets in the world. We are committed to increase our investments in parallel to the growth opportunities in India, a country offering significant potential in terms of the increasing demand for glass. Upon the completion of the acquisition process of Manfredonia facility in Italy, we have doubled our flat glass production capacity in this country. With this facility’s production capacity of 190,000 tonnes per year, we have further strengthened our flat glass leadership in Europe.”

He continued, “In Turkey, our investments aiming at automation, modernization and capacity improvement in line with the Industry 4.0 approach have continued in addition to our new investments, we completed our fourth furnace investment in our Eskisehir Glass Packaging Plant. With this new furnace with an annual production capacity of 150,000 tonnes, our annual glass packaging production capacity in Turkey has reached 1.2 million tonnes. Our efforts to put our new glass fibre plant offering an initial annual production capacity of 70,000 tonnes in Balıkesir into operation in the last quarter of the year are going on at full speed.”

Şişecam Group continued to contribute the national economy with an export volume of 391 million USD in the first half of the year.

“We keep on creating values for all of our stakeholders, with successful financial results,” Kırman noted. “Our goal is to further strengthen our financial structure to maintain the continuity of the Group's steady growth line and to support our growth in the upcoming periods. While continuing to increase the speed of our efforts to optimize our production facilities, we will continue to optimize our costs using all efficient methods, including increased use of automated systems. We continue our efforts in line with our objectives of becoming one of top three global producers in all-main business fields, sustainable profitable growth and operational excellence.”