Providing natural stone supply to many projects in America by means of CODE Impex, the architectural company operating in America, DKM Mining aims high value-added and high quality production. Aykut Adem, one of the partners of Code Foreign Trade, which has 23 years of experience in the natural stone industry, says that they are pioneering creative designs as both a manufacturer and supplier of exotic and authentic stones.
The first company to sell online
Aykut Adem gave the following information about the establishment stages of the company: “Our first company CODE Foreign Trade was founded in 1998. In 2007, when the economic crisis has started, we closed the Turkey branch of our company in 2010 and continued to serve in the United States as Code Impex. In the beginning, as a mediator company, we used to ship finished products to architectural projects. We are one of the first companies to sell through the website. In the following years, we have established our own company due to the difficulties of contract manufacturing. This decision was also triggered by the status of Turkish local natural stone producers, who are not aware of the product standards of American and European purchasers and make production mostly for Far Eastern and Middle Eastern Markets. As DKM Mining, we have been making production in Ortaklar-Aydın Region since 2011.”
Wide Range of Products
Aykut Adem, who stated that the company owns a factory with an indoor area of approximately 4,000 square meters on 50 decares field, in Ortaklar Region of Aydın said: “We renovated an old facility and turned it into a factory. Here we process the stones from our own quarry. We have wide range of products such as Equador and Dolomit from Marmara Island; Capuccino, Diano Royale, Burdur Beige from the Burdur – Karamanlı Region; Kaplanpostu, Afyon White, Sivrihisar Beige and White group from Afyon Region; Gray Marbles from Isparta Sutculer Region, Sesame and Without Sesame limestone from the Finike – Demre Region; Light, Noce and Yellow Travertine from Denizli Region; White marble groups from Muğla region and a wide range of products from Elazığ and Kulp regions. The reason why we have such a large range of products is that we are also selling products to American and European sourced projects.”
Service throughout the America
Aykut Adem said: “We are only buying raw materials from the domestic market on the basis of blocks, and we have a sales network based on exports at the rate of 85%. Our main buyers in Europe are Germany, Sweden and Northern Scandinavia Regions and from time to time we export natural stone to Canada and Australia. We also sell to Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Miami, and provide services throughout the United States. We have an average of 50 containers / year of production. Instead of working at an intense pace and producing economic products, we have targeted the production of high quality products with high added value. We also recommend this to our colleagues.”
The Choice of International Markets: CODE Impex
Aykut Adem, further said: “We have a customer portfolio consisting mainly of prominent architectural firms that make projects and applications, We are able to sell products to many projects in America through our Architecture company CODE Impex LLC in America. Some of the projects where the products of company were used are: Albertina Palace (Vienna-Austria), University of Birmingham Alabama (USA), Swiss Hotel (Tallinn-Estonia), The Marmara Hotel (New York-USA), World Trade Center (Hong Kong), Aria Hotel (Las Vegas-USA) Birmingham.”
”Surplus Production Reduces the Value of Stone”
Aykut Adem, who stated that troublesome processes were experienced in 2018, gave some advice to the sector: “The companies should high quality and central production order in their factories before ensuring high speed and capacity levels in their quarry and factory productions. Excessive production leads to a decrease in market value and demand. In order to increase the profitability of our products and to increase their value in the market, we must make production with limited quality and minimum waste. Sometimes we see such stones that are enormous in shape and color, but because they are produced in contrast to waterways, so you don’t get one piece of solid product. And as producers, we can make only 40% of the raw material of 1 cubic meter stone obtained from quarries into finished products. Many of the remaining stones become idle during production. We have to work together on this issue.”
”There is power, but no faith“
Aykut Adem emphasizing that it is not a productive period in terms of the block industry said: “Why do we sell 15,000 tons at 200 USD / ton price while it is possible selling 5,000 tons at 600 USD / tonne? At this point, it is necessary to move in unity. Why do we give the license of raw material resources to companies from foreign countries? Denizli Travertine, Muğla Beyaz, Finike-Demre Limras have already lost their values in the foreign market. This is one issue to be taken under the spotlight immediately, otherwise they will disappear. We are entering a very serious downturn as a sector. I do not want anyone to misunderstand, but we need to shrink sectorally in order the foreign markets to feel the lack of our products on the market and create a demanding market. Believe me, we have this power, but are lack of faith to achieve this.”