Turkish Textile Machinery and Accessory Manufacturers association TEMSAD Management President Adil Nalbant, gave a special statement to our press group and evaluated the year of 2018. Nalbant sincerely answered all the questions we asked and talked about the developments in the sector for 2019. Turkish textile machinery sector increased its exports by 20% compared to the previous year and reached 750 million dollars.
Q)How was the year 2018 for Turkish Textile Machinery and Accessories Manufacturers?
A) As of the end of September 2018, Turkish Textile Machinery and Accessory Manufacturers' exports amounted to 488 million dollars, compared to the previous year (408 million dollars in 2017 September). As of the end of 2018, we estimate that our exports will be $ 750 million and our imports will be $ 1.7 billion depending on the increase in foreign exchange rates.
In 2018 we also participated in textile machinery exhibition which was very attractive in terms of foreign visitors and was very successful. The exhibition was very successful with 110 TEMSAD our member, with the participation of exhibitors from the world’s various regions including Turkey. Our high-level guests from 18 foreign-textile associations, whose representative had signed a cooperation agreement, attended the fair. Over 60 foreign guests participated in India, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Iran and the United States. Furthermore, a cooperation agreement was signed between Temsad and Uzbekistan Textile Association at the opening dinner of the fair.
However, our sector has been successful in 2018. One of them is Canlar Mechatronics' acquisition of Brazzoli, one of the Italian textile machinery giants. We also observe that other members of our industry have increased their competitiveness day by day.
Until August, when we were experiencing the currency shock, our textile machinery imports in 2018 increased by up to 80%. With the increase in the exchange rate over the last few months, this figure has been reduced to 50%. This year our imports increased by 70%, especially in weaving and spinning machines. The textile finishing machines, which we are the best in 2018, have reached up to 60% in 2018 compared to the previous year.
In addition, our exports are growing stabile. We are expecting an increase in our exports which are about 20% every year and we are also expecting the export rank to reach $ 750 million in 2018 with at least %20 increase.
Q) How is this reflected the situation where investment in plant and machinery in Turkey in recent years as TEMSAD?
A) Although the economic situation in our country and the changes in the foreign currency in recent years did not affect our exporters mostly, the increases in input costs (average 50% to 60% of intermediate goods used in production) adversely affected all our producers. Besides, our producers, who are working in the domestic market, have been negatively affected by these changing exchange rates.
Imports of dyeing machines, which account for about 70% of the textile machinery sector exports, is two and an half times higher than our imports. This is why it is our duty to meet our domestic producers with the domestic textile manufacturers and to talk about the importance of using domestic machinery. We aim to encourage the greater use this as a reason TEMSAD within Turkey Textile Finishing Industry Association the evening of November 14, 2018 with the cooperation agreement we have made is by promoting our local and national machinery.
Q) Which markets stand out in the recent export rates of Turkish Textile Machinery Manufacturers? Are there new target markets for export?
A) Most of the textile machinery exports in the last period include Bangladesh and other far eastern countries. Also, we see the Central Asian region as the target market especially Uzbekistan. Export of textile machinery exports to Uzbekistan was around 65% over the past year.
As in every year, we are participating in trade fairs with our members in countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and India.
In addition to our existing markets, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and other Middle East and Far East countries, our activity continues to increase in South America, America and Europe.
Q) In 2019, what kind of strategy did you aim to realise for the development of the sector and the announcement of Turkish textile machinery manufacturers to the world?
A) We will participate in the ITMA, which will be held in every four year, and this year in Spain on 20-26 June 2019, with 156 Turkish companies. In total, respectively, Italy, China, Germany and India after the number of companies participating in the 5th rank (in total there are participants from 47 different countries). 110 of these 156 exhibitors are members of Temsad. ITMA is also the best way to promote our local textile machinery.
In addition, the year 2019 will be the most intense participation in Bangladesh market. With the DTG 2019 fair in January, our activity in the market will increase.
We are planning to carry out a workshop with the participation of our members in Uzbekistan and Egypt, one of the important and rising markets of our sector.
Our sector is growing more and more every year abroad and opening to new markets. We will make our local textile machinery more recognizable around the world by adding new ones to the cooperation agreements with the textile companies of 18 different countries and by making new developments in new countries.
We aim to achieve a significant increase in imports by providing the same success of our producers, who have increased their market share abroad every year, in the country. To achieve this purpose, we will continue to bring together the textile sector with our textile manufacturers in cooperation with the Fashion Ready-to-Wear Federation and this year with the Textile Finishing Industry Association. We make every effort to pave the way for domestic machinery use.
