Turkey has dozens of street lighting pole manufacturers, and their websites say almost identical things. Modern facilities. Quality production. Customer satisfaction. None of that helps a specifier choose. So in August 2026 we read what nine Turkish pole manufacturers publish about themselves — ourselves included — and compared them on the four things that actually change a project outcome: which metal process they run in-house, which standards they name, what they will build to a drawing, and what figures they are willing to state in public.
This page reports what we found in aggregate, and gives you the questions that separate suppliers faster than a catalogue does. We have not named the other companies: comparative claims naming competitors are restricted under Turkish advertising rules, and the useful findings here are about the industry, not about any one firm.
Disclosure: this is published by Artay Lighting, one of the nine manufacturers reviewed. Where we are the wrong supplier for a job, we say so below.
What does “manufacturer” actually mean for a lighting pole?
This is the question almost nobody asks during tendering, and it is the one that explains why two quotes for the same pole can differ by weeks and by thousands of dollars.
A lighting pole passes through up to four processes. Casting melts metal into a mould to create a shape. Extrusion pushes aluminium through a die to form tube. Fabrication cuts, bends and welds steel sheet and tube. Finishing covers hot-dip galvanizing and powder coating. A company can accurately call itself a manufacturer while performing only one of these and buying in the rest.
Across the nine manufacturers we reviewed, the pattern was consistent. Five describe fabrication only — cutting, welding, turning, coating and assembly. Their poles begin as bought-in steel sheet and tube. That is real manufacturing and it is the right process for most road and highway poles. One publishes aluminium extrusion, forming and rolling extruded alloy tube. Two publish no process detail at all, describing themselves as manufacturers without saying what they make in-house. One publishes a die-casting foundry — that is us.
Our own position is a combination, and this article is about precision so we will be precise about it. We cast — aluminium and zinc alloy, in our own die-cast foundry in Istanbul, since 1999. We do not extrude. Like most of this market we buy in extruded aluminium profile and fabricate from it: pole bodies, luminaire housings, bollards and decorative products. Steel shafts are fabricated and hot-dip galvanized to EN ISO 1461. So we run one primary metal process in-house and buy the other in, and which one your project needs depends entirely on whether its shape requires a mould.
Two of the nine publish a specific finishing capability of their own rather than subcontracting it, which is worth asking about: a galvanized finish is one of the most common sources of dispute on delivered poles, and a supplier who controls the bath controls the outcome.
Why the distinction matters in practice: a fabricator can change a pole’s height, diameter and wall thickness, because those are cutting and rolling parameters. Changing its shape — a cast base carrying a municipality’s emblem, a housing profile matched to a facade detail — requires a mould. If your supplier does not cut moulds, that shape has to come from someone else’s catalogue.
Which standards do Turkish pole manufacturers actually name?
Naming a standard in text is a low bar, and most of the nine did not clear it. Four publish no identifiable standard at all — some post certificate images with no text naming what they certify, which cannot be checked and should not be relied on.
The relevant standard for lighting columns is the EN 40 series, which covers materials, dimensions, design and wind-load verification. Only three of the nine reference EN 40 or its Turkish adoption TS EN 40. Others publish general management-system certificates — ISO 9001, ISO 14001 — which say something about how a company is run and nothing about whether a pole will stand up in a storm. One publishes certificates citing superseded versions of those standards, which is a useful reminder to check dates.
For a Turkish municipal or TEDAS tender, TEDAS type-project approval is the document that will be asked for. For an export project or a private development, EN 40 and CE marking carry more weight.
Artay luminaires are CE marked, and our manufacturing is certified to TSE under TS EN 40 for lighting columns and to ISO 9001 for quality management. Ask us for the certificate itself, with its scope and expiry — and ask every other supplier the same. A logo on a website is not a certificate, and a certificate whose scope covers luminaires does not cover poles.
How much does a custom street lighting pole cost, and how long does it take?
Not one of the nine manufacturers we reviewed publishes a mould cost, a minimum order quantity or a lead time. Not one. That is the most consistent finding of the whole exercise, and it is why specifying a custom pole in Turkey usually begins with two weeks of emails before anyone can put a date in a programme.
So that at least one set of figures exists in public, here are ours. A new mould is a one-time cost of 4,000-50,000 USD depending on part size, and the tool stays reserved for the customer. Minimum order on a new mould is 1,000-2,000 units. Cutting the die takes 4-6 weeks, series production a further 3 weeks, so a first delivery lands 7-9 weeks after drawing approval. Every repeat order on that mould ships in 3 weeks, with no further mould charge and no minimum.
Those figures apply to cast parts only. Products built from extruded aluminium profile — a large share of our poles, luminaire bodies and bollards — carry no mould cost and no minimum order, because no die has to be cut. If the form you need can be achieved in profile rather than casting, that is the faster and cheaper route, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a mould.
Those numbers are specific to die-casting, and they cut both ways. A fabricated steel pole needs no mould at all, so for a standard galvanized road pole a fabricator will almost always beat us on both price and lead time. That is not a weakness we are hiding — it is how the two technologies differ, and sending a standard road pole to a foundry is the wrong tool for the job.
Which kind of manufacturer is right for your project?
Standard galvanized steel road and highway poles, in volume. This is fabrication work and a fabricator is the right call. Ask for tonnage capacity per year, maximum single-piece pole length, and whether static calculations cover the foundation anchors as well as the pole. Where the galvanized finish is the risk, ask whether galvanizing is in-house or subcontracted, and if in-house, ask for the bath dimensions — that number tells you the longest section they can dip in one piece.
Turkish municipal and TEDAS tenders. Ask first for TEDAS type-project approval and confirm the approval covers the pole type you are specifying, not a different one in the same catalogue.
Architectural aluminium poles for large or international projects. Ask for EN 40 design compliance and photometric data, and ask whether testing is done in-house in an accredited laboratory or sent out. An accredited in-house laboratory is rare in this market and it shortens the approval cycle considerably.
Aluminium poles, luminaire bodies and bollards in established forms. These are built from extruded profile and need no mould, so there is no tooling charge and no minimum order, and lead times are short. We produce this way too — it is a large share of what leaves our factory. For these products the questions that matter are alloy grade, wall thickness, coating film thickness and coating warranty, not foundry capability.
A pole or luminaire whose shape does not exist in any catalogue. This is where casting matters and it is where we would put ourselves. Artay casts aluminium and zinc alloy in its own die-cast foundry in Basaksehir, Istanbul, and has since 1999 — the company began as a die-casting manufacturer and moved into LED lighting in 2005. Housings and cast pole components are produced from EN AC-46000 (AlSi9Cu3) alloy in-house; steel shafts are fabricated and hot-dip galvanized to EN ISO 1461. Send a drawing, a 3D model or a photograph of a reference form and we will cut the die. Note the trade-off stated above: a mould cost and a minimum order come with it.
Five questions worth asking every supplier
- Which of these do you perform yourself: casting, extrusion, fabrication, galvanizing? Ask for the list, not the word “manufacturer”. Every company we reviewed calls itself a manufacturer, and they mean four different things by it.
- Send me the certificate, with its scope and expiry. Check that the scope names lighting columns and that the standard version is current.
- What is the mould cost and the minimum order for this shape? If nobody will answer before a drawing exists, ask for the range. A supplier who cannot give a range has probably not done it recently.
- What is the lead time for the first delivery, and for a repeat order? The gap between those two numbers tells you what your second project will look like.
- Who performs the wind-load calculation, and to which standard? EN 40-3-1 and EN 40-3-3 cover this. If the answer is vague, the calculation may not exist.
Specification guides
If you are still deciding on pole type, height or material, these guides cover the detail behind the questions above:
- Street lighting poles — types, heights, galvanized steel, and what a custom pole costs.
- Modern outdoor lighting poles — LED-ready designs for streets, parks and new developments.
- Outdoor lighting poles — types, heights and materials for any outdoor project.
- Decorative lighting poles — styles and materials for parks, plazas and pedestrian zones.
- Modern lighting poles — design and material choices for public spaces.
Specifying bollards? Bollard lights: how to choose and specify them — why they are aluminium and not galvanized steel, glare control at eye level, and which standard actually applies.
Steel or aluminium? Lighting pole materials: galvanized steel or aluminium — coastal performance, chromate pre-treatment, and what happens at the joint where the two metals meet.
Not sure which type you need? Street lighting pole types: how to choose the right one — steel, extruded aluminium, die-cast and bollards compared on height, corrosion environment, EN 40 standards and what changes when the form is made to your own drawing.
How this comparison was made
Nine Turkish manufacturers of street and decorative lighting poles were reviewed in August 2026, using only what each company publishes on its own website, with directory and trade-press sources used to corroborate. Counts above describe what companies publish, not what they are capable of: a company that does not mention a foundry may still have one, and we have been careful not to claim otherwise.
We have deliberately not ranked anyone. A pole is a structural component chosen against a specification, and the right supplier for a 12 m galvanized highway pole is the wrong supplier for a cast decorative bollard. Questions, or a drawing to quote against: info@artaylighting.com.
Published by Artay Lighting, Istanbul. Last checked: August 2026.