Turkey's Sem Plastik to double capacity, boost exports to US

Istanbul — Turkish processor Sem Plastik San. ve Tic. AŞ is spending $30 million on an expansion to double its capacity, in part because it sees increasing exports of packaging to the United States.

The Istanbul-based company, which specializes in both thermoforming and injection molding of packaging, said it sees growth from both Turkey's domestic market and from increased exports to some multinational customers.

The company said, for example, that it supplies disposable food packaging to seven of the 10 largest airlines in the world.

“The main driver is like this: First of all, we think the market in Turkey will increase, especially on the packaging side, and also the disposable market will continue to grow,” said President Yavuz Eroglu, in an early December interview in his office.

“We are also selling a lot to the U.S., on the disposables side we are mainly exporting to the U.S.,” he said. “We believe the U.S. market is recovering and we can see it from the numbers. This year we feel it.”

The privately held company had annual sales of about 170 million Turkish lira ($58.3 million) in 2014, with exports of about $22 million.

Eroglu said exports could account for about 40 percent of the sales total this year, and initially are expected to be the larger driver for the expansion.

Specifically, he said Sem bought land near its current factory and will build a 215,000-square-foot plant there, adding up to 10 injection molding machines from producers in the European Union and additional capacity in thermoforming, Eroglu said.

The expansion should be completed by the end of 2017, he said.

Eroglu said Turkey has about 75 percent of the per capita plastics use of Western Europe, but he said the company he expects that gap to close quickly.