ŞENMAK Makine, which has gained its competitive power in the plastic processing machinery sector by producing screw-barrels by making a difference in terms of quality, design and performance, is one of the top 5 companies in Europe in terms of production capacity, as well as one of the suppliers with high recognition and prestige in the region.
I asked Hüseyin Semerci, the general manager of the company and the Vice President of the Federation of Machinery and Manufacturing Industry Associations (MAKFED), how the coronavirus epidemic that started in the world and caused the death of thousands of people, especially in European countries, will affect Turkish companies and the machinery manufacturing sector in terms of economy.
We export 65 percent of our production to European countries.
We have business partnerships with big names in the plastic processing machinery sector of industrially developed countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Finland and the Netherlands.
At the end of 2019, signs of slowdown coming from the global market started to show themselves, especially in Europe.
Huseyin Semerci; He said that they confirmed this in the customer visits we made before and after Christmas in order to keep the pulse with our business partners and customers of 2020.
Semerci said that they met their 2020 targets and expectations face to face with their customers by traveling tens of cities and thousands of kilometers in 5 countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in a three-week heavy visit traffic, and is also one in the plastic processing machinery and equipment sector due to the contraction in the main sectors, especially in automotive. He said that they obtained the information that there will be a contraction from their customers.
We revised our business program for 2020 in the first week of February, according to the contraction process to be experienced in one-on-one meetings with our business partners and customers in Europe.
The stagnation in European countries was also reflected in our domestic market.
This process negatively affects not only our company, but also companies in the machinery manufacturing industry.
The coronavirus, which was seen in Italy in early March, is taking the country by storm these days, so to speak.
What happened in Italy, especially Germany, France, Spain, England stopped their entry and exit with air and land transportation against the corona, and quarantine practices throughout the country, by closing their borders, had to suspend the activities of companies operating outside the health sector in these countries.
There is a total panic in these countries. For nearly ten days, we have not been able to communicate adequately with our European business partners and customers.
A large part of them entered the working mode as home-office.
Those we met stated that they stopped the orders and could not predict how long this period would be.
In our company, we have a staff of 90 qualified personnel including our R&D center.
In this process, we decided not to recruit as much as we could resist with its economic aspect. In January, we purchased our other raw materials, including the quality steel that we had to buy in our 2020 business program.
Our company located in Hadımköy, which produces in a closed area of 6 thousand square meters, is faced with a serious financial burden due to compulsory payments such as rent, energy, personnel payments and other general expenses, SGK, taxes, as well as bank loans that we use for raw material procurement and working capital. .
Although we find the solutions included in the "Economic Stability Shield Package", which consists of 19 articles announced by our President, positively, we believe that there will not be enough solutions to our financing problems that our company and other companies in our sector are experiencing and that will become increasingly severe, therefore we believe that additional new regulations will definitely be made that will bring solutions to our problems.
(Money and interest payments of the loans we use, postponement for one year from the payment terms without interest, interest-free breath loan application to skip this process without damage, "Postponement of SSI, VAT and withholding payments until the end of the year, and postponing until the end of the year without interest in energy expenses, etc.)
I have to say that KGF should be more active in this process, while I appreciate its positive regulations in loans, especially public banks.
It seems that this virus epidemic, declared as a pandemic by the world health organization, will cause serious damage to human life and economies.
In the "Economic Stability Shield Package", we will support the principles of 'continuing employment and production' as much as we can, and with the support of our President, the ministers who manage the economy and industry of our country, we will I believe they will protect it by putting their support into effect.
As ŞENMAK, we are never pessimistic, and we will continue to contribute to the economy of our country by making extraordinary efforts for new markets in this process, ”says Hüseyin Semerci, General Manager of ŞENMAK.