Home Page \ Kalkınma News \ Energy- efficiency -oriented loan agreement of USD41 Million between the Development Bank and Kardemir


Between the Development Bank of Turkey Inc. and Karabük Demir Çelik Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.Ş(Kardemir) ( Karabük Iron - Steel Industry and Trade Inc.) an energy-efficiency-oriented loan agreement of USD 41 Million  was signed.
 
During the signing ceremony, CEO Mr. Abdullah Celik made the following speech.

"As it is known, the Development Bank is a public capital based investment and development Bank, which supports private sector investment growth.  Recently our Bank has been intensifying his credit allocation activities. Experiencing one of   history's most serious global crisis in 2008 and 2009 our bank closed each of the years with approximately 50% credit growth, standing by the investor’s side on particularly bad days. While providing financial support for new customers via credit growth, our Bank has been ensuring their existing borrowers. In this connection we have avoided to prejudice our customers with arrangements like the recall of loans and excessive increase of credit interest rates.

Our Bank realized its growth in 2008 and 2009 through two channels, the wholesale and retail. With the aim to reach small enterprises in the context of wholesale banking, our Bank took advantage of distribution channels belonging to banks with widespread branch network, through which numerous SME’s were supported with operating credits. Providing  these enterprises with loans amounting to TL 20 million and € 20 million, an estimated additional employment for 2000 people has been achieved. Increasing wholesale banking activities in 2010, our Bank is planning to allocate new credits  to the amount of TL 300 million.
 
Firms directly by our bank credit classification as we have defined the retail side of the head, hydro electricity, wind, geothermal, landfill gas for electricity in areas such as obtaining financing including renewable energy sector has attracted. The investments without depending on external,  providing reliable and uninterrupted energy supply  in Turkey are important for the sustainable economic growth of our country.   Because of  being a safe investment  and  conformable to the  development goals, our bank gives special emphasis  on  deliberately supporting  the investments in the energy sector.     From the beginning of 2009 to present, so far, 1.877 billion Turkish Lira in credit demand is received and from this amount 1.156 billion Turkish Lira is for  energy investments. With our expert project teams in energy sector, demands  are assessed promptly and   TL 770 million loan from  international organizations   has been allocated for the energy investments  . Afterward the evaluation process    our project teams continue to provide technical consultancy services to the investors and customer satisfaction is one of our priority. By means of giving  importance to the quality of service and providing    affordable prices in the sector   enable  a greater number of new investors to choose  our bank and also  the existing customers   recently doing business with us granting their  new projects to  our bank and this shows the highest  level of  customer satisfaction gained by our bank..

So far, our bank  has been allocated TL  810 million loan to Energy investments,  and TL 470 million   has been contracted. Part of TL 217 million in the year 2009,     total amount of TL  277 million  was paid to companies. In this area, over 60 renewable energy projects have been assessed and a total 535 MW power for 36 units of  project     has been granted . 200 MW power plant in the 10 units (8 HES, 1 geothermal, 1 Landfill) has launched to production. Until the end of 2010 the 335 MW power plant in 26 units (23 HES, 1 RES, 1 geothermal, 1 energy efficiency) is planned for production. Total 170 MW power projects in the 11 units are under consideration.

Our Bank, which is determined to continue increasingly its support for energy investments, signed in December a new €150-million credit agreement with European Investment Bank (EIB). Continuing to talk with international financial organizations to find new sources, our Bank will put in 2010 into service new resources in parallel with the on-going interest of these organizations in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

As for our current credit issue, KARDEMİR Karabük Iron and Steel Inc., with this investment, is planning to build a power plant of 50 MW, by using the energy of flue gases released into the atmosphere during production after their treatment by burning; to produce by itself the electricity needed for its installations. So, it aims to provide a significant amount of energy efficiency, by reducing current electricity costs by 70 %. A power plant of 50 MW provides the energy needed for lighting up approximately 250,000 homes. A 41-million dollar (US) loan, which is expected to be used within two years, was allocated to this project that will provide employment for 50 people.

The investments which our Bank granted credits to   the field of renewable energy are environment-friendly ones, preventing carbon release. Thanks to the energy of 438,000,000 kws/year, which will be produced by the investment in question, nearly 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide release will be prevented.

Taking into consideration the fact that 4173 people are still being employed at KARDEMİR Inc., we can see how much this investment is important for Karabük. Now that production and raw material costs have increased, profit margins decreased, quality and prices are of first priority, it becomes more important to produce competitive products and services in international markets. I hope that KARDEMİR Inc.’s this investment will be a source of inspiration for our investors who wish to reduce their costs and increase their productivity. "

Abdullah ÇELİK
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Development Bank of Turkey