Page 21 from: What’s inside issue #4?

21recyclinginternational.com | July/August | 2024

COUNTRY REPORT

Never stop innovating,
says Birim Makina

Electric cars, real-time monitoring screens, smart welding robots and solar panels covering the roof of

its new production facility near Izmir: Türkiye’s recycling machinery manufacturer Birim Makina is put-

ting a lot of effort and money into becoming future-proofed.

Birim Makina may be a modern com-
pany but it has always cherished its
roots. Olive trees surrounding the
company’s new production halls are
not just ordinary landscaping trees;
they come from the family’s own plan-
tation nearby. ‘It is important to know
where you’re coming from, and we’re
very proud of our family history,’ says
managing director Aykut Karahan.

NEW HOUSING
It’s been a crazy year so far for Birim,
says Karahan, who has been at the
helm of the company for ten years.
Under his leadership, the production
area has recently expanded to 50 000
m², with 35 000 m² (five halls) currently
in use. Total investment: EUR 8.4 mil-
lion. This year, a new 10 000 m² weld-
ing factory was opened, featuring
state-of-the-art robots operating 24/7.
On top of that, Birim Europe has been
set up in Germany to better serve the
European market. The company also
introduced a new 1 000-tonne cutting
force shear with side press.

GOOD AND BAD TIMES
Business is going well, the md says
during a tour of the facility where
impressive pieces of equipment are
built and assembled. One is a shear
for a recycler in Dubai, another is
being prepared for shipment to a steel
mill in India while a three-ram baler
will soon find its way to a customer in
Türkiye.
‘Roughly 80% of our business is
export,’ says Karahan. The other 20%
is domestic. With Türkiye among the
top 10 steel producers in the world,
Birim has always gained a lot of busi-
ness from the steel sector. ‘Obviously
not every year is good for recycling
equipment sales. Let’s put it this way:

In a good year we will sell 30 shears, in
a bad year 20.’
Today, Birim Makina’s equipment is in
operation in 70 countries, including
the US, Germany, Japan, Brazil, India,
Australia, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.
Global conflicts and political unrest
have been affecting Birim’s activities,
too, says Karahan. When Saudi Arabia
launched a trade boycott against
Türkiye a couple of years ago, Birim’s
activities in this market more or less
dried up. ‘It’s all in the game. But the
good news is, things have started to
pick up again.’

ROBOTIC HELP
Birim Makina has always been a strong
innovator. The company has recently
introduced a welding robot in its new
production hall. The decision to switch
to robots came from necessity, accord-
ing to Karahan. ‘Finding good welders
these days is very hard, if not impossi-
ble.’
Some EUR 500 000 was invested in the
first robot, replacing five welders, with
a second on the way at a cost of EUR
250 000. So far, the results have been
‘amazing’ and efficiency has gone up
rapidly, says Karahan pointing at a
shear in the hall. ‘It would take two
welders 15 days to weld this one. The
robot does it in three to four days.
And delivers a great job. People were
sceptical in the beginning, but I really
must say that the results are great.’

TO MEASURE IS TO KNOW
Other innovative projects include
screens on the walls of the production
halls. They monitor in real time how
the manufacture of a machine is pro-
gressing. ‘Are we on schedule, or is a
specific step in the work taking too
long? Why is that? And do we need to

adjust? By measuring the processes,
we make our production more effi-
cient.’

SUSTAINABLE, TOO
Birim Makina is eager to cut produc-
tion emissions to zero. The factory
produces its own electricity, supplied
by solar panels installed on the roof.
Staff drive electric cars also powered
by the solar panels. ‘We currently pro-
duce 150% of the energy we need so
we sell 50%.’
Birim also has a rainwater collection
system.

Fotobijschrift

PIONEERS IN THE
RECYCLING INDUSTRY
Birim Makina was founded in
1988 by Aykut Karahan’s father,
Sevket. Always driven by innova-
tion, he laid the foundations for
what was to become a global
player in the metal recycling
equipment industry.
Birim Makina specialises in baling
and briquetting presses, shears,
shredders, stationary and mobile
material handling machines for
metal recycling. It carries out all its
activities in the field of metal recy-
cling.
Today the Birim machine portfolio
covers more than 85% of the
metal recycling machines
required in the scrap trade, auto-
motive industry and steelworks.
Apart from new machines and
service, the company is also
involved in trade-ins of used
machines and the hire and com-
plete overhaul of metal recycling
equipment.

A U T H O R | P H O T O Martijn Reintjes

20-21_turkey_birim.indd 21 03-07-2024 16:44