UCEM Automotive produces gaskets -which is an important part of automotive industry- for last 25 years. 80% of their sales goes to export markets. The company plans to expand their exports. Mesut Mutluşan, General Manager of UCEM Otomotiv, Eurogasket evaluated their current position in Turkey and abroad in the automotive aftermarket industry and their aims.
Can you tell us about your production and products group?
We are a leading company in the sector for 40 years. We are especially producing gaskets -which is an important part of automotive industry- for last 25 years. Cylinder head gaskets, valve cover gaskets, full set, gear gaskets, compressor gaskets, manifold gaskets and repair kits are some of the products in our range.
Mesut Mutluşan, who took over the management from his father Ali Mutluşan, now manages the company with his son Alican Mutluşan. Our company continues to be active in both domestic and foreign markets by reaching its targets as soon as possible with its young, dynamic and experienced team.
What is your monthly production capacity?
Monthly production capacity of our factory is 50,000 cylinder head gasket, 3,000 full set gaskets, 15,000 oil pan gaskets. Every step is taken in our company for increasing our capacity in order to meet increasing sales performance. Now we are in a program of capacity increase by expanding our machine lines, increasing human resources and productivity planning. Until 1990, we were the representative of factories such as Iskra – Tam – Torpedo – Papfeda Tesanj – Ricard Bencic – Fap Famous in Yugoslavia which is a manufacturer of the German automotive industry in Turkey with the Yugoslav civil war that started in 1991, we started exporting automotive spare parts to Yugoslavia which we had previously imported but production stopped with the war. After establishing UCEM Automotive Company in 1993, we started to produce sub-industry gaskets for Deutz – Man – Mb – Volvo – Scania Renault – Iveco by adhering to German quality. In 2007 we were at 6.000 mt where we are now by moving to our closed area factory we have completed our gasket production by Victor Reinz, Dph, Fisher, Plath, Frenzelit, Carteco, etc. we have improved our quality by using auxiliary products and raw materials.
How has the pandemic affected your company? What changes have you observed in your current markets and export volume?
We are all in the same ship. As every sector, automotive sector is also effected negatively by this pandemic. Our export sales was shrinked 40% and we could not get orders from some of our markets during the first year of the pandemic. Some markets are just coming to life. But besides, there also have been markets which never lost their capacity. We hope that Omicron variant does not become a serious threat on the markets and the world gets over this pandemic soonest. We have an intensive exhibition program every time. We will exhibit in Automechanika Frankfurt and we will showcase our all kind of gaskets.