Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics Exhibition hosted important manufacturers from Turkey. Ismail Gülle, The President of Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (ITHIB) having participated at the exhibition which gathered ready wear fabric manufacturers and having not left alone the exhibitor, gave important statements to our magazine. Last year, Gülle supporting the additional taxes imposed on import fabrics said that their attitude shown was right and with time their rightness was proven. Gulle underlined that the country won with this decision.
Ismail Gülle explained that the textile industry was badly injured after the global economic crisis experienced in 2009 and noted that with the additional taxes put into effect in 2011 the textile industry refreshed. Ismail Gülle mentioned that countries started to implement steps to protect the local manufacturers having diminished by 30% in the world economy and continued: “Turkey launched studies so as to not be badly affected from this era.” Gulle underlined that this practice is formed in compliance with the World Trade Organization rules and it is in order to protect the Turkish Textile manufacturers and then he continued; “ Turkey constantly keep saying that it is a textile country but when we check the figures our exports are around 9 billion dollars, whereas our imports are 12 billion dollars. We need to take actions so as to prevent this situation leading to foreign trade deficit. Besides that many products sold in overseas created several inert and passive capacities in available plants in Turkey. An era, in which mills were shut down and employees were unemployed, was experienced. Thus the additional tax law was implemented as of September 2011 as it was undoubtedly necessary.”
An Additional 108 Thousand Employment was Created
Gülle reminded that the additional tax law is not valid for products which are not manufactured in Turkey: “If there weren’t an industrial addressee, it wouldn’t be so easy to make a decision, thus this process was launched with a common opinion,” he said. Gulle informed us about the developments since the day the decisions were taken and continued his speech: “We had a textile import of 12 billion dollars while we had a textile export of 9 billion dollars. It was nonsense to purchase from overseas while most of them included the products manufactured in Turkey. With the implementation of this decision, new investments were made and the percentage of capacity use increased considerably, the unemployment figures reduced due to new recruitments to mills. As per the recent figures received and additional employment of 108.000 employees was realized compared to the textile and ready wear employee numbers of the previous year Some people were disturbed with additional taxes but our country won. Both our country earned money and both a great contribution the unemployment problem was made.”
Constantly Increasing Costs Force Companies
Gulle evaluated that the textile export figures are relatively low when we compare with the ready wear exports and he noted that there is no problem in added value production in the industry. Gülle pointed out that the Turkish textile industry experienced an important change in 2005 and that companies, who could not pace u with this change, went bankrupt and, he added that over 200 mills were closed. Gülle informed that manufacturers, who survived during this change era, gained self-confidence in the production of both technical textiles and value added production.
Gülle stated that many manufacturers were successful with their innovative products at international exhibitions and justified that the market stepped into a new age with especially technical textiles. Gülle continued: “The technical textiles export, which was 100 million dollars 10 years ago, is now over 2 billion dollars. This means that we have taken a long way forward. Although the number of manufacturers reduced by half, our exports in technical textiles constantly increase. The main reason is that the quality perception is at high levels. Turkey is no longer considered as a cheap manufacturing country. This is true for all industries. Every 6 months, the natural gas prices increase and production costs consequently increase. The cost of a worker is 1.000 USD. It is no more possible to make basic production under these circumstances. Companies, who are still in traditional textiles, are having problems. If these manufacturers have not gone bankrupt yet, their fall is too soon.”
An Annual Growth of 10%, 20 Billion Dollars of Export in 2023
Gülle pointing out that the textile industry constantly developing is an important industry branch for Turkey reminded that since 2005, some people tried to push textile in a secondary position. “Some said that Turkey shall not make textile production and leave it to China”, said Gülle: “Company owners, who understood that production is the sole way to overcome the crisis experienced in 2009, gave a good lesson to those rejecting this,” he said. Gulle criticized that within the scope of the recent stimulus package, textile was not listed among the strategic industries and continued; “The majority of investments are mainly on the west side of Turkey. Our government wants to solve the unemployment problem by directing investments and production to East Region. However, this could not be realized as the moving stimulus was empty. When nothing was given, mills did not go to the region. It doesn’t matter that textile is not listed under strategic headlines. Even if we use our current capacity fully, our production will reach top figures. That’s how we can achieve our goal dedicated to the 100th year of our Republic. An annual increase by 10% will lead us to achieve our goal.”
Gülle evaluated the government attitude in making slow step economically and pointed out that the slowdown experienced in the domestic market consequently hinders the production. Gülle explained that the global crisis influence export figures: “ Despite all these problems, we will pace with up the export figures of the previous year on value basis and in terms of export amount we will come up the export numbers of the previous year. The production, which was expensive last year, is a little bit cheaper this year. Thus such a value-amount result is the case,” he said.
İsmail Gülle also mentioned of our Turkish Textile Industry and Investment-Stimulus file published at Textile Dünyası Magazine’s September issue and noted that the Turkish textile gained speed after the 2007-2008 crises. The decrease of 40% in the stimulus document in 2012 compared to 2011 does not mean a recession as per Gülle; “Investments of billion dollars can be defined as the indicator of a positive trend after the crisis. Of course, it is not for sure known as these are stimulus document. However, as we follow up, especially in the recent period a crucial weaving investment and a sum of yarn investment was realized. Machinery purchase in other fields continued,” he said.
We Protected Exports by Diversifying the Market
Gülle told that the going on investments is important contributions in terms of our country and stated that they are looking for solutions by diversifying the market during the crisis. Gülle informed that generally problems are experience with Middle Ease and that the Arab Spring influences the industry negatively and added the following about diversifying the market; “For instance America was a lost market for us in the past, but we recently have won back this market. We have solved the exchange rate problem. We had no exports to Far East in the past. Today we have a sale around 180 million dollars to China. We have more sales to Turkic Republics. Besides these, we never had sales to Latin America but we have important contacts with commercial committees in the region. Although there is not an important demand from South America, there is a production problem. We try to be present there with our quality production. Especially Colombia is an important gate to enter the South American Market. Brazil is also an important region. We observe a considerable demand increase. Our trade activities are of importance recently. We have started to sell yarn equivalent to around 200 million dollars.”
