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Turkey's wire and cable industry features dozens of companies ready to serve specific needs across a range of sectors both low and high tech.

Erkan AydoÄŸdu

Former CEO, Prysmian Group — Turkey

The company has been in operation for the last 140 years and has extensive experience. Our Turkish operations, established in Bursa in 1964, were acquired by the group in 1999. Prysmian acquired more cable companies until it became the largest cable manufacturer. With its acquisition of General Cable, which is extremely dominant in the US, Prysmian Group has become a giant within the sector. We are far larger than the second-largest group. The group extends across 52 countries, with 112 plants and EUR11 billion in turnover. This is one of the reasons we have such a wide variety of products within our portfolio. We strive to maximize our synergies and efficiencies to operate as effectively as possible in existing markets and enter new ones. We are also leveraging the wider product range at our disposal. This allows us to meet consumers’ needs in every way possible. In Turkey, we are in a unique position; we can produce over 22,000 different cable types, such as energy and telecommunication cables, including copper and fiber, under one roof. We also have different capabilities within Turkey that allow us to make significant contributions to the group from an R&D perspective. We have developed a great deal of value in Turkey over the last 54 years, and we try to leverage it. We like to look at the medium term and beyond. Our challenge is not to maximize everything in the short term. We link Turkey to the future, and we seek to play a key role in this transformation by operating across numerous areas.

Mehmet Kavaklıoğlu

Vice Chairman, Pamukkale Kablo

Renewable energy use is increasing all around the world, and Turkey has many investments in renewable energy—most recently in solar energy. We are cable manufacturers, so we have a specialty in power cables, such as those used for solar energy plants. We are supporting solar projects. Different renewable energy techniques use different types of cables, and for solar energy we are manufacturing cables with cross-linkable, halogen-free, insulated, and tin-copper conductors. The cables are simple and regular products all around the world, so we can sell it to Turkish, European, and Middle Eastern buyers. Today, renewable energy projects are only a small share of our business, but we hope to expand their share as investment in the sector increases. In Turkey, we manufacture all kinds of power cables: telecommunications cables, fiber-optic cables, low current cables, and some special cables with aluminum conductors. We are manufacturing these cables for many sectors of the economy. The Turkish cable industry is one of the biggest in Europe. There are approximately 100 cable manufacturers in Turkey, 15 of which are large companies. Including Pamukkale, Turkish manufacturers mainly export low-voltage power cables. The country’s geographic position makes it favorable for exporting. In 2018, we exported more than USD2 billion as an industry. Of that, 65% was to Europe and the other 35% to the Middle East, Russia, and African countries. In 2018, we exported approximately USD120 million worth of cables, and we will continue to concentrate on our export business.

Mehmet Dereli

Founder & CEO, Mehmet Dereli

Around 40% of our production is in control cables. This product is used in industrial facilities, conventional factories, and buildings. The second-most produced cable is for power industry, which makes up around 30% of our total production. In contrast to classic power cables, we focus on producing specialized types of power cables that are fire resistant and durable. Our primary clients for this product are from petrochemical, iron, and steel industries. Approximately 25% of our production is composed of instrumentation cables, which are third on the list. We produce this type of cable for gas and petroleum refineries as well as the iron-steel industry. The remaining 10% production is generally for specific clients such as original equipment manufacturers and data centers. 2M Kablo has become a R&D center registered by the Ministry of Science, Industry, and Technology. 2M Kablo is the first local low-voltage cable manufacturer with a registered R&D Center. The R&D center is in Tekirdağ, located in an organized industry complex at Çerkezköy. There are currently eight engineers working in the R&D center, where we use the most advanced software. We use a program called a “cable builder“ and have loaded almost all the cable standards into this program. We can easily and quickly produce the cables in our portfolio at any standard and pace. We also have an effective Axapta ERP system to track production. Our Axapta system consists of seven different integrations. All production orders go to the machines, and the operators fulfill those production orders.

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