Ahmet Öksüz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters' Association (İTHİB), stated that the production of the textile industry in Turkey has reached a capacity of 49 billion dollars, and when the ready-made clothing industry is added to this, the total size reaches the level of 78 billion dollars and said, ‘’During the pandemic process, our manufacturers have made huge investments in the yarn and fabric industry. Adding to such large investments, due to the increase in production costs and dumped products, the taxes applied to imported products in the textile sector remained at low levels. This led to a record rise in imports. Urgent measures are necessary in the face of these problems. If appropriate measures are not taken, a decrease in production will be inevitable. The stronger the production infrastructure of the Turkish industrialist with the level of support, the more influential our country will become. Textile and ready-to-wear sectors, which are inseparable from one another, are the most concrete indicators of this. The ready-to-wear industry is strong with the textile industry, and the textile industry is strong with the ready-to-wear industry. We must not disrupt this integrated production chain.”
Ithib Management Meeting in Kahramanmaraş
Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters' Association (İTHİB), the umbrella organization of the Turkish textile industry, have met in Kahramanmaraş. The present and future of the industry wear were under evaluation in the organization, which was held with the participation of İTHİB Chairman of the Board Ahmet Öksüz and the members of the board of directors. Expressing that textile production in Turkey is amongst the few countries in the world with its modern infrastructure and integrated production power, İTHİB Chairman of the Board Ahmet Öksüz pointed out that the textile industry has a strong production and export network in all sub-product groups.
Production Reached $78 Billion
Expressing that the sector is differentiated with its strong production structure, İTHİB President Öksüz continued wording as follows: “In 2021, the production of the textile industry reached 49 billion dollars. In order to explain this figure more clearly, it is necessary to look at the previous years. The production value of the textile industry was $38.6 billion in 2017, $38.2 billion in 2018, and $38.1 billion in 2019. In 2020, when the effects of the pandemic were most intense, this figure decreased to 36 billion dollars. In 2021, with Turkey's positive separation from rival countries, production rose to 49 billion dollars. During these years, the productions of the ready-made clothing industry have also increased. The ready-made clothing industry produced $29 billion in 2021. Thus, the production value of the textile and ready-to-wear industry increased to 78 billion dollars in 2021. While the textile sector constituted 8.5 percent of the manufacturing industry's production with a production value of 49 billion dollars, the share of the textile and ready-made clothing sectors in industrial production was 13.5%. The textile and ready-made clothing sector also constituted 25.8 percent of the employment in the manufacturing industry.’’
Manufacturer Should Be Safeguarded Against Imports
Emphasizing that the sector, which has such a strong production structure, faced an unfair competition against imported products, Öksüz said, ‘’It is our national responsibility to increase exports and earn foreign currency for our country. However, our industry is facing with unfair competition regarding imported products. During the pandemic process, our manufacturers have made huge investments in the yarn and fabric sector. Thanks to these investments, while the production capacity increased, these also benefited greatly to the increasing exports. While Turkish manufacturers are making such big investments, the intense entry of dumped products into our country and the low additional customs duties applied to imported products pushed our manufacturers in a challenging environment. This situation caused domestic production companies to face unfair competition. The domestic manufacturer had to maintain production under the cost pressure. Meanwhile, a record increase in imports was noticeable. The record increases in imports dependent on several factors. At the forefront of these has been the dumping export of Asian countries. At the same time, the measures that should have been applied to protect the domestic producer are made ineffective due to origin deviation. If urgent measures are not taken in the face of these problems, a decrease in production, which has reached a giant size of 78 billion dollars, will be inevitable. The yarn sector is protected by Additional Customs Taxes between 5 and 8%. Unfortunately, the cotton yarn industry is the least protected product group among all products with additional Customs Tax. The average of the Additional Customs Tax is around 25% in all sectors. In this context, increasing the additional customs duties of the cotton yarn industry, which is one of the most important raw materials of the textile industry, is among our most important expectations. The stronger the production infrastructure of the Turkish industrialist with the level of support, the more influential our country will become. Our Ministry of Commerce also approaches the issue very diligently. In this context, our Ministry of Commerce frequently meets with our industry, and we seek solutions together against increasing unfair competition.''
Export Continues Without Slowing Down
Pointing out that the sector still managed to increase exports with its strong production infrastructure, Öksüz also made evaluation on the export data. Öksüz said the following, “As the textile industry, we are not focused on a single market. Thanks to our export structure, we have an advantageous position both in the European Union Countries and throughout the world. In 2021, we exported to 200 countries and regions, and as the textile industry, we broke the historical record of the Republic with an export of 12.9 billion dollars. Despite the inflation crisis and war in the world, textile reached the highest seasonal export figure of all time in the January-August period. It realized an export of 8.7 billion dollars by increasing 7.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. In the first 8 months of the year, the countries in which we directed our textile exports the most were Italy with an increase of 18.2 percent, Germany with an increase of 1.5 percent and the US with an increase of 12.9%. Thanks to both our strong infrastructure and market diversity, we were aiming to strengthen our strong export growth in 2021 with exports worth 15 billion dollars in 2022. However, the Euro/dollar parity, which fell below its 2002 level, hit the lowest level of the last 20 years. It seems highly probable that this parity will create an additional burden on our textile industry, which imports in dollars and exports in euros. As the textile industry, we make 52% of our exports on a Euro basis. However, since the depreciation of the Euro will increase the production costs of the EU, the recession that may occur in Europe has the potential to sharpen the fragility for our textile sector exports. In this context, we revised our export targets for 2022 in a slightly downward direction. Nor are they instantaneous measures to reduce the fragility of the Euro / dollar parity; permanent solutions must be found. In this context, focusing on producing more value-added products should be our top priority.”
