Industrial minerals
Ceramics · Glass · Refractories · Fillers
- Sodium & potassium feldspar
- Quartz / silica
- Kaolin & halloysite
- Ball clay
- Bentonite
- Dolomite & magnesite
Türkiye · Italy · Spain · EU · North Africa
Your person
in Türkiye.Your person
in Europe.
I represent raw material producers and the manufacturers who buy from them, working from two bases: Bodrum on the Aegean and Florence in Tuscany. Industrial minerals, cementitious by-products, recycled polymers and frozen food, moved between Türkiye, Italy, Spain, the rest of the EU and North Africa, with one accountable contact from the quarry face to the unloading bay.
15yrs
In industrial
minerals
minerals
300k t
Minerals a year,
on average
on average
15+
Mineral lines
represented
represented
7
Ports worked across
three countries
three countries
The bridge
Two bases,
one corridor.
Bodrum sits beside Güllük, the port that ships much of Türkiye's feldspar, within reach of the Milas and Çine mining belt. From there the material crosses the Mediterranean to two ports: Ravenna, which feeds Italy's ceramic district around Sassuolo, and Castellón, at the heart of Spain's tile cluster. Florence is about two hours by road from both Ravenna and Sassuolo. Much of Europe's ceramic industry depends on this corridor, and I work both ends of it.
- TürkiyeMines, processors, recyclers and Aegean ports
- ItalyCeramic, glass and cement manufacturers, served through Ravenna
- SpainThe tile cluster around Castellón, served through its port
- Wider EU and North AfricaBuyers across the single market and the southern Mediterranean
- Bodrum and FlorenceWhere I work from, in person
What I do
One representative, working in both directions.
Some clients are Turkish producers who want to sell into Europe. Others are European manufacturers who want dependable supply from Türkiye. The job is the same either way: be present where the client cannot be, and make the deal work for both sides. The same applies between Italy, Spain, other EU markets and North Africa.
For producers in Türkiye
Your representative in Italy, Spain and the EU
- Finding and qualifying buyers who fit your material and your volumes
- Presenting your grades to plant managers and technical teams
- Trial shipments, lab data and qualification with the customer
- Negotiating price, terms and contracts in the buyer's market
- Following every order through delivery, claims and payment
- Market intelligence: who is buying, at what specification, against which competitors
For buyers in Europe
Your representative at the source
- Finding and qualifying producers, processors and recyclers
- Mine and plant visits before you commit volume
- Sampling, pre-shipment inspection and loading supervision
- Negotiating with Turkish suppliers in Turkish, on your behalf
- Freight, documents and customs handled end to end
- Problems solved locally, before they reach your production line
In the room
Plant visits, customer meetings and the industry's main trade fairs, attended in person on your behalf.
- Tecna Rimini
- Cersaie Bologna
- Ceramitec Munich
- Ambiente Frankfurt
- Cevisama Valencia
Across the border
Material already agreed? I can take over freight, packing, documentation, customs and delivery as a standalone scope.
Materials
What I work with
Industrial minerals are the core, with cementitious by-products, recycled polymers and frozen food alongside. Minerals and by-products keep production running; the recycled and secondary lines put proven material back to work at lower cost and a lower carbon footprint.
Cementitious by-products
SCM · Clinker reduction · Low carbon
- Fly ash (EN 450 / ASTM C618)
- Bottom ash
- Natural & synthetic gypsum
- GGBS / granulated slag
Polymer granules
Extrusion · Moulding · Recyclate
- rLDPE (recycled low-density PE)
- rPP (recycled polypropylene)
- Colour and MFI matched to your line
Frozen & food
Cold chain · −18 °C · HACCP
- Frozen cakes & bakery
- Reefer & groupage
- Health, HACCP & TRACES documentation
The full value chain
Most consignments pass through five parties. I hold all five ends.
A trader quotes the price. A lab checks the quality. A forwarder books the freight. A broker clears customs. A bank structures the paper. When those are five separate parties, every gap between them becomes your risk. As your representative, I run the chain end to end, so accountability never changes hands.
Sourcing & qualification
Direct relationships with mines, processors and recyclers. Producers are qualified on reserve quality, plant capability and consistency. Visited and audited, not picked from a directory.
Specification & testing
Your body or batch formulation translated into a grade a producer can actually hold. Sampling protocols agreed up front, XRF and XRD verification, certificates checked against contract tolerances before loading.
Contracting & terms
Contracts drafted with the failure modes in mind: Incoterms matched to who can genuinely control the risk, tolerance and rejection clauses that mean something, payment structured to protect both sides.
Freight & cold chain
Big bags, bulk, containers, reefer and road groupage. Packing chosen for the material's moisture and handling behaviour, and freight priced into the offer rather than negotiated afterwards.
Customs & compliance
HS classification, preferential origin, REACH and food-contact documentation, health and phytosanitary certificates, all prepared before departure rather than after the truck is standing at the border.
Delivery & aftercare
Arrival inspection, quality reconciliation against the shipped certificate, claims pursued to settlement, plus call-off stock so material lands against your production plan rather than the vessel's schedule.
Technical grounding
I read the spec
before I read
the price.
Fifteen years inside industrial minerals companies, carrying commercial responsibility for an average of 300,000 tonnes a year across fifteen-plus minerals, sold into ceramics, glass, paint, welding, cement and engineered stone. As your representative, that means I can talk to a plant manager about their body recipe, firing curve or setting time, not just about price.
A cheap tonne that shifts your firing shrinkage by half a percent is the most expensive tonne you will ever buy. Operating principle
- Mineralogy Chemistry and phase behaviour. Major oxides by XRF, phase identification by XRD, loss on ignition, and the impurity limits that actually matter: Fe2O3 and TiO2 for whiteness, K2O to Na2O ratio for fluxing behaviour.
- Physical What the material does in the plant. Particle size distribution, brightness and whiteness, moisture, plasticity and rheology for clays, swelling index and methylene blue value for bentonite.
- Process Plant-level familiarity with ceramic body formulation, glass batching, clinker and cement blending, and polymer extrusion, including what each process will and will not tolerate in a feedstock.
- Standards EN 450-1, ASTM C618, EN 197-1, EN 15167 for cementitious materials; EN and ISO methods for mineral testing; food-grade and food-contact requirements for the frozen line.
- Substitution Second sources that actually work. Qualifying an alternative grade against your existing recipe, running trial quantities, and documenting the equivalence so a switch becomes a decision rather than a gamble.
- Modes Container, bulk, reefer and road. Big bags and 25 kg sacks in FCL, loose bulk where volume justifies it, temperature-controlled reefer for the frozen line, plus road groupage and Ro-Ro for smaller call-offs.
- Packing Chosen for the material, not the price list. Moisture-sensitive minerals get liners and desiccant; free-flowing grades go loose. Wrong packing turns a good grade into a rejected consignment on arrival.
- Routes Established handling from Istanbul, Barcelona, Castellón, Ravenna, Gemlik, Izmir and Güllük ports into markets worldwide, with bonded and open storage where a call-off programme makes sense.
- Documents Full set, prepared in advance. B/L or CMR, packing and weight lists, A.TR and EUR.1, certificates of analysis and origin, insurance certificates, and health, TRACES and phytosanitary papers for food.
- Cold chain −18 °C, unbroken. Pre-cooling, set-point and temperature-log verification, and HACCP-compliant handling from the freezer through to the receiving warehouse.
- Insurance Marine cargo cover placed to Institute Cargo Clauses (A), with claims prepared and pursued rather than handed back to you.
Logistics
The tonne is
only sold once
it is unloaded.
Logistics is where margin quietly disappears: in demurrage, in a rejected document, in a liner bag that let moisture into a kaolin shipment. I plan the movement at the same time as the purchase, so the delivered cost is a number in the offer rather than an argument after arrival.
Background
Fifteen years in the trade, on both sides of the table.
Fifteen years in industrial minerals
Commercial leadership at leading Turkish producers, with responsibility for an average of 300,000 tonnes of minerals a year.
Both sides of the table
I have sold to European plants and sourced from Turkish and international suppliers, so I know what each side needs to hear and what each side worries about.
Built for the EU market
New country markets opened across Europe, and warehousing set up in the Netherlands, Germany and France to serve customers from stock.
Local at both ends
Based in Bodrum and Florence, so meetings, plant visits and loading supervision happen in person rather than over email.
Contact
Producer or buyer, tell me where you need to reach.
Producers: send the material, available volumes and the markets you want to enter. Buyers: send the grade, tonnage and destination. Either way, you will get a considered reply within one business day, including an honest answer if it is not something I should be handling.
- Based inFlorence, Italy · Bodrum, Türkiye
- CorridorTürkiye, Italy, Spain, the wider EU and North Africa
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/oguzozkurt
Email
oguzozkurt@gmail.com
Best for specifications, drawings and long enquiries
WhatsApp
+90 530 065 66 74
Fastest route for a quick availability or price check
Enquiries are treated as confidential. Nothing is shared with third parties.