ABOUT ASLAN CEMENT

ASLAN ÇİMENTO A.Ş., first factory of Turkish Cement Industry, is on the thresholds of its centennial.

• CENTURY-OLD PILLAR OF THE SECTOR
Aslan Çimento, first factory of Turkish cement industry, was founded in 1911 in district of Darıca of county of Gebze of city of Kocaeli by local entrepreneurs.

Starting with an annual capacity of 20.000 Tons, this factory merged with Eskihisar Cement Factory, quite nearby, in 1919, under trade name Aslan ve Eskihisar Çimento ve Su Kireci Anonim Şirketi. After the War of Independence is over, the company offered all of its shares to public, thereby becoming a real publicly-held joint-stock company, and enhanced its annual capacity to 40.000 Tons adding a new kiln in 1926 and began to meet a significant portion of the country's demand. Suspending its production due to shortage of fuel during the World War II, the factory resumed its production in 1947.

Being one of the national pioneers and supporters of technological developments and economic development breakthroughs going on all over the world in the second half of the 20th century, the factory commissioned its first two kilns, fired under wet-process, in 1953, and a third one in 1956, thereby reaching an annual capacity of 300.000 Tons.

These three wet-process kilns have been converted into dry-process system with the advent of new technical and economical conditions. Thus, the factory became capable of producing 500.000 Tons of cement a year. The factory reached a cement grinding capacity of 3.400.000 Tons / year as the result of ongoing modernization activities carried out from 1978 to date.

• THE "LION CULTURE" IN TURKISH CEMENT INDUSTRY
A book, titled "Story of our First Cement Factory", prepared in a 5-year comprehensive research conducted by academicians in cooperation with History Foundation of Turkey and Aslan Çimento, and published in 2004, documents that Aslan Çimento occupies a special place not only in Turkish Cement Industry but also in Turkish Economical History, as supported by many historical data and documents.

Such data and documents indicate that Aslan Çimento, almost a century-old, has supplied products for many important structures in our country and that it has set a precedent for the sector on the strength of its product and service quality as well as of its corporate culture. Two anecdotes given in this book are noteworthy in this respect.

İlhan Ersanlı, one of the building contractors of the First Bosphorus Bridge built in 1973, recalls: "The Highway Administration had a principle.. Cement used in the European side should have been supplied from Zeytinburnu and Ak Çimento factories and cement used in the Anatolian side should have been supplied from Kartal and Darıca factories. I talked to British Chief Engineer - while the bridge is in progress - abous Aslan Çimento and they referred Aslan Çimento for analyses. Aslan Çimento had been found as 4th degree best cement of the world and, after that, they used Aslan Çimento on both legs of the bridge. In other words, traditional procedure of the Highway Administration went out of use; and both Beylerbeyi and Ortaköy legs of the bridge embraced Aslan Çimento..."

Cengiz Özdemir, who served as general manager of the factory for long years, recalls:
".. Aslan Çimento brought ..advanced technology to Turkish Cement Sector, .. for example, covered stockhole, Loesche mill, automatic sampling and dispatching system and X-ray spectrophotometry are major innovations. Just like the start-up of precalcination kiln for the first time. Apart from such innovations introduced in the sector, factory managers, too, did run the affairs with a great farsightedly. They pioneered formation of Association of Manufacturers and Union of Employers. These are major assets of the previous generation."

Among our important structures built using Aslan Çimento products are; Bosphorus Bridge, Atatürk Cultural Center, Çubuk Dam, Atatürk Airport, Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Kınalı - Sakarya Motorway, Formula 1 Runway and structures.

• A WORLD BRAND COMING TO DARICA: COMPANY JOINS LAFARGE GROUP
The factory joined Lafarge Group, world's largest cement manufacturer, in 1989, and this change brought greater focus on technological development, environment, human resources and training. As is the case in Turkey, Aslan Çimento also occupied an exclusive and distinguished place among 122 cement factories of Lafarge Çimento, spread over 43 countries, on the strength of its production, management and human resource quality, and played an "innovating pioneer" role in the sector also making use of almost 200-year global know-how of Lafarge Group.