Auto steel maker to focus more on arms

BURSA - Anatolia News Agency

Yepsan will begin manufacturing 93 percent of sheet steel shaping pieces for Turkish Aerospace Industries, says Mehmet Baş, the chairman. AA photo

The Automotive Spare Parts Industry and Trade (Yepsan), based in the northwestern province of Bursa, has entered the defense industry, becoming a strategic partner of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in sheet steel shaping.

Yepsan will begin manufacturing 93 percent of sheet steel shaping pieces for TAI, which includes sheet metal and machining, after they sign the agreement tomorrow.

According to Yepsan chairman Mehmet Baş, the company is one of the nine strategic companies under TAI, and has been manufacturing for automotive companies including Fiat-Tofaş in Turkey, Bentley in the United Kingdom and the Volkswagen Group in Germany, in its 25-year history.

Baş said they began activities in the defense industry in 1995. Yepsan has manufactured tank pieces for the Turkish army via the state-owned ammunition maker, the Machinery and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK). The Yepsan Defense and Aerospace Industry was officially founded in January 2011.

Contribution to exports

“Our cooperation with TAI, which began in 2010, has concluded. The Yepsan Defense and Aerospace Industry is one of the nine strategic partners of TAI. We have contributed to increases in the exports of TAI.”

Baş also said they would increase their employee number in the defense industry from 250 to 400.