Cam Elyaf (Cayirova / Turkey; www.camelyaf.com) is planning to build another glass fibre production facility in Balikesir / Turkey, about 150 km north of Izmir, for around EUR 100m. The plant will have a capacity of 70,000 t/y. Startup is planned for the second half of 2018, says Ahment Kirman, vice president of Şişecam (Istanbul / Turkey, www.sisecam.com.tr/en), Cam Elyaf's parent company.

Last year, competitor P-D FibreGlass (Oschatz / Germany; www.pd-fibreglass.com) laid down plans for a jointly established glass fibre production facility in Turkey with Cam Elyaf (see Plasteurope.com of 15.03.2016) – these plans are now on hold in connection with the attempted coup in Turkey, and the project is now left to Cam Elyaf alone. Jöran Pfuhl, sales director at P-D Fibreglass, told Plasteurope.com that the companies were still closely linked, but the current political framework is not favourable for German companies to invest in Turkey.

In the Aegean Sea region, many companies are in the wind energy sector, and a main need here is to have an additional supply of reinforcing fibres. According to Kirman, around 60,000 t of glass fibre are imported into Turkey each year. The new plant would replace these imports.

Şişecam represents a good 90% of the Turkish glass industry with a production volume of 4.6m t – distributing not only of glass fibre but also sheet and container glass. Cam Elyaf currently produces glass fibre at its main plant in Cayirova, near Gebze. The capacity at this plant is around 66,000 t/y.