Türkiye is in the focus of attention of data center and battery factory investors

Mehmet Sami Kılıç,  Turkey Vice President and General Manager of Turner International, one of the internationally known construction and project management companies, said that investments in lithium battery factories, data centers and logistics fields will increase in our country in the near future and that Turkey will be a great sphere for many local and foreign investors in these areas. He noted that Turkey is an attractive market.

Turkey, where it has been actively operating for 10 years, has become one of the most strategic markets for Turner International, a North America-based international construction and project management company with offices in more than 60 countries around the world.

Turner International Vice President and Turkey General Manager Mehmet Sami Kılıç noted that they foresee that Turkey will be the focus of many new investments in the near future, with its geopolitical location that serves as a bridge between east and west, as well as its climate and potential. Evaluating the global investment trend, Kılıç said, “In the global arena, projects in the fields of data center, logistics and lithium battery factory investments brought about by increasing electric vehicles come to the fore. Since we are active in the field of contracting in the USA in these areas, we now see that this wave of investment is rapidly approaching Turkey through the project management leg. “We foresee rapid progress in these investments in our country in the short and medium term,” he said.

Intense interest from national and international data center investors

Reminding that the need for data centers and the importance of data storage in the world increased after the pandemic, Kılıç said, “As an international company, we have developed our partnerships globally in this field. Turkey, which is an important pillar of our strategy, is currently the most attractive country for data centers in Europe after Poland. “The most important reasons why Turkey is attractive for both data center and logistics investments are its geopolitical location between the east and west, the mild climate required by data centers, the relatively cheaper workforce and the fact that technical employees are qualified compared to other countries,” he said.

Stating that domestic companies as well as foreign companies have investment demands in this field, Kılıç said, “In the USA, which is the leader in the data center field, companies such as Facebook and Amazon, with which we personally work as Turner, are increasingly increasing their market shares by investing in this field. Apart from the USA, we also work in this field in Spain, Ireland and England. Now, by transferring our knowledge abroad to Turkey, we are working on the data center project with Equinix, together with our team with specific expertise in this field. In Turkey, which promises a large market, establishing specific teams in the data center field has become essential not only for project management but also for construction companies. “If we look at ‘Does Istanbul or Turkey need a hotel or a data center?’, I can say that the data center is a greater need.” made his assessment.

Battery production will become mandatory with electric vehicles

Emphasizing that another area in which they are experienced is ‘lithium battery factories’ and that the transition to electric vehicles is progressing rapidly in Turkey as well as in the world, Kılıç said, “Current leading automobile manufacturers do not produce lithium batteries that electric vehicles necessarily use, but import them and assemble them. However, production will be necessary due to the high import cost of batteries and the increase in need in the coming period. In Turkey, where TOGG has taken a big step in the field of electric vehicles, value-added investments will begin in this field. We hear that new battery factory investments will also enter the market due to our international connections. “One of these is planned to be a major investment in Ankara, and we aim to pioneer the establishment of such projects in Turkey, especially with foreign investors,” he said. Kılıç also pointed out that battery factories, unlike industrial buildings, require special expertise that has not been done before, and require a special structure that requires expertise in humidity control, protection and storage of many chemicals.