Turkey : Technical textile exports show optimistic results
Write:
Churchill [2011-05-20]
The textile and apparel industry has been an integral part of the Turkish economy as textile and apparel operations account for 24 percent of the country’s industrial employment. Technical textile is a growing sector of this industry.
A statistical report of the Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters Association (ITKIB) shows that imports and exports of technical textile have seen a considerable growth since 2000 to 2006.
In 2006, the country imported technical textiles worth US $625 million from markets like Germany, Italy, China, the United Kingdom and France. Turkey imports from around 15 countries to fulfill its domestic demand. Nonwovens and coated fabrics represented top value share in imports during this period.
Turkey’s exports of technical textiles have been more than double in the last six years. In 2000 shipments were worth $405 million, whereas last year it was around $847 million. Germany topped the list of export markets with around $147 million Turkish technical textiles with flexible, intermediate bulk containers of man-made textile materials and tire cord fabric leading the exports.
Turkish textile sector exports, excluding apparel accounted for approximately $6.1 billion in 2006 showed a 12.2-percent increase over 2005. The main export items are knitted fabrics, cotton woven fabrics, woven fabrics of synthetic filament yarns, bed sheets and bags-sacks for packaging.
Turkey enjoys favourable export policies, which focus on the highly skilled textile manufacturing industry base of the country.