Interview with Murat Yurekten, Chairman and CEO of ENPAY Transformer Components
Transformers Magazine presents Chairman and CEO of ENPAY Transformer Components, Murat Yurekten, in an interview held at CWIEME Berlin 2022.
On the photo: Murat Yurekten
Germany, Berlin: Transformers Magazine presents Chairman and CEO of ENPAY Transformer Components, Murat Yurekten, in an interview held at CWIEME Berlin 2022.
Mr Yurekten, what are your impressions of the show? How does it feel meeting people face-to-face again?
After two years of absence, it is good to be back in Berlin again. This is the 25th anniversary of the show and ENPAY has been here each and every of the 25 years. There is a good response and it is good to see all customers and friends in person again.
Do you have new products that you are introducing here?
ENPAY designs custom-made products for the transformer industry and new designs are created at all time. What differentiates ENPAY from most other component makers is the ability to design products with a large team of designers, both electrical and mechanical. We have these design teams now in all four ENPAY plants.
Have you recently had any major investment?
ENPAY significantly invested in its plants within the last 5 years, the pandemic period included. ENPAY Krskany plant in Slovakia invested in a new metal fabrication plant, as well as new core cutting lines for distribution and power transformers. ENPAY Slovakia changed its whole layout, enabling faster production, and also became a focus factory for transformer cores; magnetic cores made of grain oriented steels and nano-crystalline alloys. ENPAY Shumen plant in Bulgaria consolidated its production in HV insulation components for power transformers in 2020, increasing its production by 100 %, thus becoming a focus factory in these products with this significant investment. ENPAY Vadodara plant in India invested in both Insulation components, increasing its production double fold, as well as increasing its production in reactor cores, current transformers. The heaviest investment, however, was in ENPAY Kullar plant in Turkey, with many core cutting lines, capacity increases both for wound cores and current transformers as well as a second production line for nano-crystalline alloy ribbon. Considerable capacity upgrades of Insulation components were also realized with additional machinery and equipment. Another major investment in Kullar-Turkey started in 2021, which is currently well under way, a new mill for transformer boards. Our second mill will be operational within the last quarter of 2022 and it will strengthen our production by doubling our capacity.
ENPAY now has 2200 employees in 4 manufacturing plants in 4 countries, with a core-cutting capability of close to 80,000 tonnes. The company is a major supplier for wound cores of GO, Nickel iron alloys, advanced materials, specialty current transformers and a major producer of transformer boards as well as HV insulation components and kits. Our relentless investment, making bold decisions and strong work ethics, has enabled us to achieve this.
How is business going? What is the situation on your markets?
We have quite a good response from the market and all product groups are in good load. The demand for transformer components is strong as a result of a strong demand for transformers in many regions of the world. We can also see the same strong demand in the current and voltage transformers and components for those units.
What are the major issues in your business? Supply chain or something else?
Obviously, the supply chain issues are there especially for steel products. Our purchasing teams are working relentlessly in order to overcome difficulties. There are also labour shortages in many countries. Thanks to our HR policy, all these years we have been dealing with these issues and finding solutions. We can say that other issues, such as inflation, have also become a visible problem in many countries.
Regarding you plans for future, is there anything significant? What do you expect of the market?
Firstly, we will finalise our investments and this will consolidate our position in the market. We do expect renewables and the investments into grids to continue worldwide, and we will work with our direct customers, the OEMs in order to serve the ecosystem of the energy transmission. So far, we have been only the underdog trying to change the status-quo. And we have changed it. ENPAY quality is now taken as a benchmark by our customers. With our input and competition in the market over the years, there are now better-quality products delivered at considerable shorter lead-times. I am now proud to call ENPAY a leader in transformer components.