We had a pleasant interview with Mr. Oktay Aşkın, General Manager of Evonik Ticaret. Mr. Oktay Aşkın shared with us information on important issues such as the development process of his company, its activities and sustainability policy.
Can you tell us about yourself, your professional background and your career journey at Evonik?
In 1999, I took my first step into my career at Evonik’s Comfort & Insulation Business Line (formerly Goldschmidt GmbH) in Germany. In the following years, I worked as Area Sales Manager for Western Europe and Latin America, and later additionally for India and Türkiye. I came to Türkiye in 2012 to take over the Business Development Director role of Evonik Ticaret responsible for Türkiye and Azerbaijan and successfully initiated & established growth for several business lines. In 2017, I held the position as Business Director heading the local sales, marketing & technical team, in 2020 I resumed in addition the function as Deputy General Manager. Since February 2023, I have been working as General Manager of Evonik Ticaret.
Could you please share the development process of Evonik in Türkiye and the sectors it serves?
Evonik is one of the world’s leading companies in the production of specialty chemicals. Based in Germany, our company is active in more than 100 countries. In 2022, Evonik achieved sales of €18.5 billion and adjusted EBITDA of €2.49 billion. Our company, which has approximately 34,000 employees worldwide, serves with a total of 200 personnel in Türkiye, 60 of which are within the Evonik Ticaret organization.
Today, Evonik Ticaret, which covers 13 different business lines, serves in every field of chemistry from paint to cosmetics, pharmaceuticals to plastics, construction chemicals to food. As a structure that provides technical services with its application laboratories, technology and service centers as well as sales and marketing services, it meets the needs of not only Türkiye but also the Middle East and Africa. As being the team in Türkiye, we work with the goal of creating innovative, profitable and sustainable successful solutions for our customers, all leading beyond chemistry.
What are your products that you offer to the polyurethane sector and how do you work to improve these products?
Evonik is the global leader in polyurethane additives, offering the broadest range of catalysts, surfactants, release agents and performance additives to the global industry. We work closely with our customers, so we continuously stay ahead of the latest trends and issues impacting our markets. This enables us to proactively develop innovative solutions to answer changing market demands. Evonik’s R&D centers in Germany, America, Singapore, and China intensively carry out these studies.
Do you have an innovative polyurethane product that you would focus on promoting at Putech Eurasia?
Evonik is in a position to develop and lead the sector in product development. Technological developments, changing dynamics, environmentally friendly regulations are very decisive in this regard.
Finally, the PU division has also taken important steps in digitization and developed the TEGO® RISE software which our team will introduce. Another new product will be the metal catalyst “KOSMOS® T 900” with a low emission profile.
Could you please tell us about your export activities? Which products do you mainly export to which regions?
Out of Türkiye, we export almost our whole product range to the most promising growth markets in Middle East and Africa.
How do you evaluate the development of the polyurethane sector in Türkiye, and can you talk about the importance of the Turkish market for Evonik?
Türkiye is one of the three largest markets in Europe in the PU sector. In the flexible foam segment, it is even the leader. We anticipate that the Turkish market will go further on a global scale in the near future. We have increased our investments in this direction, especially in Türkiye.
Our “Home of Polyurethane”, which we opened in our competence center in Tuzla, Istanbul, claims to be a technical support & training center for Türkiye, Middle East and African countries.
The current climate crisis is pushing us all to act more responsibly for the world. As Evonik, how do you work in the field of sustainability?
At Evonik, we are fully committed to providing sustainable solutions that deliver value to our customers. Our mission statement, “Leading beyond chemistry to improve life, today and tomorrow”, sustainability is at the core of our corporate strategy, permeating every aspect of our research and development, portfolio management, and culture. We have already generated significant sales from products with a favourable sustainability profile,
and we are steadfast in our goal to increase this proportion to over 50% by 2030.
Our focus areas include fighting climate change, driving circularity, safeguarding ecosystems, and ensuring health and wellbeing, and we do not compromise on our transparency in sustainability reporting. We recently issued our second successful green bond and will continue to lead the way in providing sustainable solutions that benefit our customers and the environment.
