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Zorlu Holdings Chairman Ahmet Nazif Zorlu has said his groups project to build unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be finished by 2012 and will decrease Turkeys foreign dependency in that field.
The Aegean province Denizli-based Zorlu Holdings chairman noted that the project towards making Turkeys national unmanned vehicles will be made public in 2012, in an interview with Todays Zaman. I am not going to say anything now. You will hear the details next year. Upon completion this project, Turkeys foreign dependency on UAVs will come to an end, he said. It was made public in previous years that Zorlu Holding was working on a project to produce Turkeys national Herons, in cooperation with the defense ministry and undersecretariat for defense industries. Only Turkish engineers are involved in the Heron project. We will both build the software and the vehicle itself. There are of course some parts, like motors and cameras, that we will buy from another company but this is common in these kinds of projects, Zorlu stated. When asked how much money they had spent on the project up to now, Zorlus answer was much more than $20 million.
Ahmet Nazif Zorlu noted that Turkeys foreign dependency on unmanned aerial vehicles will come to an end upon the completion of the project in 2012, to be produced by his group. The project, in which only Turkish engineers are involved -- is expected to exceed $20 million, Zorlu said, adding that his group will have two big investments next year
The head of Zorlu one of Turkeys biggest conglomerates started to work as an apprentice in his fathers textile shop but moved when he was 15 to the Black Sea region province of Trabzon where they received many orders and opened another shop there. When he felt that the Trabzon region was too small for him, Zorlu decided to move to İstanbul in the 1970s. His first action was to enter the linen sector and establish the brand Taç, which would become Turkeys famous textile company in the future. Zorlu become so successful within the textile sector that he was able to acquire Turkish electronic giant Vestel in 1994 which was founded by the Turkish Cypriot (former) business tycoon Asil Nadir. With Zorlus efforts the Vestel production plants changed into Vestel City in a very short time and the amount of televisions produced annually rose from 360,000 in 1994 to 11.5 million recently. The success of the holding continued and Zorlu acquired the state-run Denizbank in 1997 but later sold it to the Belgian Dexia Group in October 2006. According to Zorlu, the sale was prompted by a move to focus more on their core business operations.
No time for gossip
Addressing the rumors that Vestel is in a hard period he said that they closed the previous year with an export figure of $2.25 billion. Besides this, our goal is to clinch $3 billion of exports in 2011, a 40 percent increase in exports over the previous year. We do not have time for gossip, Zorlu said. We export 90 percent of all the produced electronic equipment and 80 percent of all produced appliances. However, he mentioned that a valuable Turkish Lira prevents them from increasing exports. In 2001 currency was valued at TL 1.70 (TL against the US dollar) during the high inflation periods, whereas recently the currency rate is TL 1.50, despite the low inflation rate. Of course, I do not want the currency to depreciate too much but a high currency value hurts the expansion of our businesses, he noted. Zorlu underlined that Turkey was not affected too much from the global financial crisis that started in 2008.
Look at the example of Greece. They [Greece] were hit by the crisis because they did not produce much. We should be aware of the fact that Turkish industry has protected us from the crisis. Therefore, we should more focus on improving Turkish industry in all fields, he noted and added that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration has been very successful at maintaining the fiscal discipline in the country.
Two big investments in 2011
Moreover, Zorlu announced that they will construct a nickel refinery in the Gördes town a district of the Aegean province of Manisa this year and that production will start two years later.
Zorlu Holding previously announced that they have found an area in the Gördes town that had 600,000 tons of nickel potential. The value of the nickel is estimated to be $10 billion. Zorlu said they had been searching the area for more than six years. He added that their initial investment amount for mining and producing the nickel will be around TL 700 million while they expect to mine the nickel reserve in 25-30 years time. He also noted that around 1,000 people will be employed in the refinery. We are also considering the environment while planning the refinery. The nickels will be mined in a closed system and the environment will not be affected by the mining process. I need to say that this production plant will be the first of its kind in Turkey, he said.
Furthermore, the chairman of Zorlu Holding mentioned that their second big investment this year will be the Zorlu Center a shopping mall complex with luxurious offices and condominiums which is still under construction at the Zincirlikuyu district of İstanbul. Addressing the concerns of those who claim that the Zorlu Center will ruin the face of İstanbul, he said that 80,000 of the 120,000 square meters of the area where the center will be constructed will be green areas. You will see next year upon its completion if the Zorlu Center will ruin the face of the city or make it much better. We build a new neighborhood there where the subway and Metrobus will also connect, he said.
source: Zorlu: National UAVs will decrease Turkey?s foreign dependency
The Aegean province Denizli-based Zorlu Holdings chairman noted that the project towards making Turkeys national unmanned vehicles will be made public in 2012, in an interview with Todays Zaman. I am not going to say anything now. You will hear the details next year. Upon completion this project, Turkeys foreign dependency on UAVs will come to an end, he said. It was made public in previous years that Zorlu Holding was working on a project to produce Turkeys national Herons, in cooperation with the defense ministry and undersecretariat for defense industries. Only Turkish engineers are involved in the Heron project. We will both build the software and the vehicle itself. There are of course some parts, like motors and cameras, that we will buy from another company but this is common in these kinds of projects, Zorlu stated. When asked how much money they had spent on the project up to now, Zorlus answer was much more than $20 million.
Ahmet Nazif Zorlu noted that Turkeys foreign dependency on unmanned aerial vehicles will come to an end upon the completion of the project in 2012, to be produced by his group. The project, in which only Turkish engineers are involved -- is expected to exceed $20 million, Zorlu said, adding that his group will have two big investments next year
The head of Zorlu one of Turkeys biggest conglomerates started to work as an apprentice in his fathers textile shop but moved when he was 15 to the Black Sea region province of Trabzon where they received many orders and opened another shop there. When he felt that the Trabzon region was too small for him, Zorlu decided to move to İstanbul in the 1970s. His first action was to enter the linen sector and establish the brand Taç, which would become Turkeys famous textile company in the future. Zorlu become so successful within the textile sector that he was able to acquire Turkish electronic giant Vestel in 1994 which was founded by the Turkish Cypriot (former) business tycoon Asil Nadir. With Zorlus efforts the Vestel production plants changed into Vestel City in a very short time and the amount of televisions produced annually rose from 360,000 in 1994 to 11.5 million recently. The success of the holding continued and Zorlu acquired the state-run Denizbank in 1997 but later sold it to the Belgian Dexia Group in October 2006. According to Zorlu, the sale was prompted by a move to focus more on their core business operations.
No time for gossip
Addressing the rumors that Vestel is in a hard period he said that they closed the previous year with an export figure of $2.25 billion. Besides this, our goal is to clinch $3 billion of exports in 2011, a 40 percent increase in exports over the previous year. We do not have time for gossip, Zorlu said. We export 90 percent of all the produced electronic equipment and 80 percent of all produced appliances. However, he mentioned that a valuable Turkish Lira prevents them from increasing exports. In 2001 currency was valued at TL 1.70 (TL against the US dollar) during the high inflation periods, whereas recently the currency rate is TL 1.50, despite the low inflation rate. Of course, I do not want the currency to depreciate too much but a high currency value hurts the expansion of our businesses, he noted. Zorlu underlined that Turkey was not affected too much from the global financial crisis that started in 2008.
Look at the example of Greece. They [Greece] were hit by the crisis because they did not produce much. We should be aware of the fact that Turkish industry has protected us from the crisis. Therefore, we should more focus on improving Turkish industry in all fields, he noted and added that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration has been very successful at maintaining the fiscal discipline in the country.
Two big investments in 2011
Moreover, Zorlu announced that they will construct a nickel refinery in the Gördes town a district of the Aegean province of Manisa this year and that production will start two years later.
Zorlu Holding previously announced that they have found an area in the Gördes town that had 600,000 tons of nickel potential. The value of the nickel is estimated to be $10 billion. Zorlu said they had been searching the area for more than six years. He added that their initial investment amount for mining and producing the nickel will be around TL 700 million while they expect to mine the nickel reserve in 25-30 years time. He also noted that around 1,000 people will be employed in the refinery. We are also considering the environment while planning the refinery. The nickels will be mined in a closed system and the environment will not be affected by the mining process. I need to say that this production plant will be the first of its kind in Turkey, he said.
Furthermore, the chairman of Zorlu Holding mentioned that their second big investment this year will be the Zorlu Center a shopping mall complex with luxurious offices and condominiums which is still under construction at the Zincirlikuyu district of İstanbul. Addressing the concerns of those who claim that the Zorlu Center will ruin the face of İstanbul, he said that 80,000 of the 120,000 square meters of the area where the center will be constructed will be green areas. You will see next year upon its completion if the Zorlu Center will ruin the face of the city or make it much better. We build a new neighborhood there where the subway and Metrobus will also connect, he said.
source: Zorlu: National UAVs will decrease Turkey?s foreign dependency
