Turkey

Just as at the close of 2021, Turkish paper mills continued working at full capacity in the early months of 2022.

Among the key developments in this market, Kipas has run successful tests and achieved positive results with the new duplex machine at its Soke facility while the same company’s investments in the tissue facility at Kahramanmaras have continued at full steam ahead.

At the same time, Hamburger has maintained the pace of its duplex board investments at Kutahya.

Modern Karton, an Eren Holding subsidiary, has concluded machinery selection for its 500,000 tons per year linen production facility at Zonguldak and continued at full speed with its investments. Another Eren Holding subsidiary, Eren Kagit, has grown its investments in the UK market: following the acquisition of the Shotton paper mill in North Wales, it has begun a project aimed at converting the existing facility to produce recycled corrugated case material with an annual capacity of 750,000 tons. Plans also target the establishment of a corrugated production line capable of 110,000 tons per year.

In addition to the above-mentioned investments by Eren Kagit, construction is under way and full investment commitments have been made for a tissue facility with a yearly capacity of 210,000 tons.

Given all these developments, recovered paper volumes in Turkey are falling short of meeting demand, with domestic production capacity expected to double over the next three years. Despite the anticipated increase in paper recovery, it is reasonable to assume growing demand for recovered paper imports into Turkey; the projection for 2022 is 2 million tons and this figure is expected to increase in the near future.