Karmod Chairman of the Board Mehmet Cankaya said, “The European market constitutes 35% of our international sales. We aim to increase this figure to 60% in the 5-year period.”
Karmod, one of the companies headquartered in Kahramanmaras that has an important share in healing the wounds in the region with thousands of prefabricated steel independent structures sent to the region after the major earthquakes on February 6, 2023, aims to expand its market share with its work abroad.
Answering the questions of the AA correspondent, Karmod Chairman of the Board of Directors Mehmet Cankaya emphasized that they focused on meeting the needs of the region last year due to the earthquakes and that they will accelerate their work abroad this year.
Noting that they prioritize efforts to increase their share in the European market, Cankaya said, “Our construction standards are in line with the demands of Europe and the USA. However, the main problem here is to have a very good command of the building regulations of these countries. We made reinforcements in this direction to our technical office and foreign trade team. In order to better analyze the incoming demands, we have created a team that analyzes prominent details such as building statics and insulation in different European countries.”
“We have direct sales offices in Germany, France and England”
Cankaya pointed out that they are continuing their efforts to develop and expand their dealer networks in their foreign sales targets and said, “In our foreign sales targets, we are mainly working on developing and expanding our dealer network. In Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Djibouti are among the countries where we have developed a dealer network. We also have a sales office in the USA. In Europe, we have direct sales offices in Germany, France and the UK. We work with the dealership system in Czechia, Portugal and Spain.”
Underlining that Europe has a special importance in foreign targets, Cankaya said, “The three-month foreign sales ban imposed on the sector due to the earthquake affected the 2023 export growth rate to decrease. The European market constitutes 35% of our foreign sales. We aim to increase this figure to 60% in the 5-year period.”
Mehmet Cankaya stated that Karmod continues many projects to achieve its international growth target and said:
“We are working to increase the sales of qualified steel villas, especially to European countries and the USA. In these countries, there has been an increase in our projects such as schools and management offices in recent years. The contribution of our sales offices in Europe is great in this increase. We research the building regulations of European countries and produce buildings according to these regulations. When technical detail demands are understood, selling to these countries becomes much easier. Social housing projects stand out among our projects in Africa. Again, the oil, natural gas and gold mine construction site group has an important share among the projects we have carried out in Africa.”
“There are serious increases in demand for steel houses all over the country.”
Stating that building demands in Turkiye have started to change in the last year, Cankaya said, “After the earthquakes, there were demands for 3×7 earthquake containers due to the urgent need for accommodation. Then, 25 square meter commercial shops were built. The demand for the light steel prefabricated houses we produce has increased a lot recently. The main reason for this is citizens’ escape from multi-storey buildings due to the earthquake reality and their search for safer housing. Today, there is a serious increase in demand for steel houses not only in the earthquake zone but all over the country.”
Cankaya pointed out that they observed an increase in the demand for mosques and schools in the earthquake region and said, “We also see a change in mosque construction preferences in the region after the earthquake. As a company, we have carried out 4 separate mosque projects in the region. Apart from public investments, there are also demands for private schools from the region. As a private school, we completed and delivered a project with 13 classrooms in a short period of one month.”
Noting that the steel village houses project is continuing in the earthquake zone, Cankaya said, “Our Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change has taken a step towards the use of light steel structure system in village houses. Mass housing projects are planned by the public in the region and tenders are being opened. We are developing our business plan to respond to these demands.”
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz