AKSA to resume production after fire

 

 

Istanbul (Dunya) – Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayi, the world’s largest producer of acrylic tow, fiber and tops and a big producer of carbon fiber, will resume output this week after a fire swept through its main warehouse at its Yalova factory last Wednesday, company officials said.

 

Fire fighters were called in from nearby towns and cities to extinguish the eight-hour blaze that destroyed finished products and threatened to spread to nearby production units at the site, along the Sea of Marmara 180 km southeast of Istanbul.

 

Plant managers said production would resume shortly at Aksa, a unit of the Akkok Group, one of Turkey’s largest conglomerates. 

 

Aksa began producing acrylic in 1971 with an annual capacity of 5,200 tons and has grown more than 60-fold in four decades. Today, with an annual capacity of 350,000 tons, it has a 72% share of the domestic market for acrylic fiber and about a 14% global market share

 

Aksa’s products are used as raw materials of synthetic yarns and fabrics and in the production of blankets and carpets, home furnishings, craft yarn, sailcover cloths, wipe cloths, asbestos replacement and concrete and stucco reinforcement. 

 

In 2011, Aksa had a net income of $55.6 million on $977.9 million in sales. It had exports of $354.3 million, selling to nearly 300 companies in more than 50 countries on five continents. 

 

Although it is a publicly traded company, Aksa is 39.58 % owned by the Akkök Group and the Dinçkök family, one of Turkey's leading textile manufacturers. Emniyet Ticaret ve Sanayi A.S., an investment company owned by the Lodrik family, has a 18.72 % stake in Aksa. Some 9.20% shares are held by Oppenheimer Quest International Value Fund, while the remaining 32.5% shares of the company are widely held and traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

 

Aksa's Yalova plant was damaged during the cataclysmic earthquake that struck northwest Turkey on August 17, 1999, causing a leak of toxic acrylonitile from the plant to neighboring villages and farm areas, damaging crops and causing chest diseases and cancer among 300 residents and at least one top executive.