Turkey's Sisecam plans investments to boost capacity

By Ceyda Caglayan

ISTANBUL, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Turkey's leading glass maker Sisecam plans to increase production capacity in several facilities at home and in Italy and India, its general manager said.

Sisecam, the third largest producer of glass household goods in the world and fifth largest in production of glass packaging and flat glass, has 44 production sites in 13 countries and produced 2.4 million tonnes of glass in the first half of 2017.

In an interview late on Wednesday, Ahmet Kirman told Reuters that Sisecam planned a series of investments domestically and internationally to boost competitive advantage.

"We have plans to modernise and increase the capacity of one of our glass furnaces at our glass packaging factory in Yenisehir," Kirman said. He added the company also planned a new furnace at factories in the northwestern province of Eskisehir and the Polatli district in Ankara.

He did not give a value for the investments. Last year Sisecam invested 120 million lira ($34.5 million) in the renewal of a glass container factory furnace in the southern Turkish city of Mersin.

Kirman said that Sisecam was also looking for options in Europe to increase their activity in the region by penetrating into new markets, adding that a number of countries were being evaluated.

Sisecam has production sites in Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kirman said the company was very pleased with the performance of a factory which it acquired from Italy's Sangalli in 2016.

"(The) Sangalli (factory) currently has a production capacity of 220,000 tonnes per year and its sales performance is great. It has been a very effective point for us to enter the European market, he said. "We may look at increasing capacity again."

Kirman added that the company would also make a final decision on increasing the capacity or expanding its investment in India.

A planned initial public offering (IPO) for its glassware unit Pasabahce would have to wait for some time due to a global decline in demand for glass household goods, he said. ($1 = 3.4799 liras) (Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

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