Group breaks ground for 350 mln euro paper plant
KAHRAMANMARAŞ - Anatolia News Agency
Kipaş Holding plans to put 350 million euros into a paper factory in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş, where its headquarters are also based. AA photo
Kipaş Holding started to build a paper plant with a total investment cost of 350 million euros in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş on May 12.The plant will be one of the top 10 paper plants in Europe, Hanifi Öksüz, chairman of Kipaş, said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Construction of the plant will be finalized in 16 months, he said. “The production capacity of the plant will be 500,000 tons of paper per year. The products will range from fluting paper, test liner, white test liner, imitation kraft, grey board and core board,” Öksüz said.
Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Mehmet Sağlam, Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies for Kahramanmaraş Mehmet Ramazanoğlu, Nevzat Pakdil and Sıtkı Güvenç, along with Kahramanmaraş Mayor Mustafa Poyraz and Governor Şükrükocatepe were in attendance for the groundbreaking ceremony. The plant is being built in the Türkoğlu district of the province.
Kipaş Holding’s main areas of activity are textiles, ready-to-wear, cement, energy and agriculture.
Twenty-eight years ago Kipaş started out with only 30 workers, they have now expanded to employ some 8,000 workers in 28 plants with a total annual turnover of $1 billion from six sectors, Öksüz said.
The holding aims to diversify the industries located in Kahramanmaraş and establish facilities that can compete with those in the European Union, he said. Kipaş will build a new power plant to meet the electricity and steam needs of the paper plant, he said, adding that the paper plant will utilize 100 percent waste paper, to save 3 million full-grown trees a year.
External resources
The investment will be carried out completely with external financial sources and it will be the first project that the World Bank will grant a loan for in Kahramanmaraş, he said.
Sağlam said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the world develops with new inventions, strategic investments and with the investments of the private sector.
In the modern world states give weight to infrastructural investment to clear the way for businessmen, Sağlam said.
“States support entrepreneurs [in the world] now,” he said adding that the paper industry is a significant and strategic investment field.
Touching on the incentive scheme, he said, businessmen will play a leading role in bringing the scheme to life and urged the businessmen of Kahramanmaraş to hurry up gaining new investments.