Adil Nalbant, who has been the President of the Textile Machinery and Accessories Industrialists Association (TEMSAD) for a long time, revealed some statements on the subject. "TEMSAD is a non-governmental organization founded in 1998, which includes companies producing textile machinery, textile machinery spare parts and textile chemicals under its own umbrella. Currently, we have 225 members, almost all of which are local manufacturers. 90% of the companies operating in this field in the sector are members of TEMSAD. Additionally, 85% of our member companies are exporters. According to TÜİK labor force data, the number of employment in our sector is 9500. 22 of our members have R&D centers and 4 of our members have Design Centers. The increase in R&D and Design centers in our sector, especially in the 5-6 year period, appears as one of the important concrete developments for our sector.
In addition, TEMSAD is a founding member of the Turkish Machinery Federation (MAKFED) and continues to be a member of the board of directors. By increasing our collaborations with important textile sector representatives locally in recent years, we have laid the foundations for the textile and textile machinery sectors to actively build effective communication channels to interact. This framework covers the organizations which we are in active cooperation domestically; Fashion and Apparel Federation (MHGF), Textile Finishing Industrialists Association of Turkey (TTTSD), Turkey Textile Industry Employers' Association (TTSİS) and Association of Turkish Home Textile Industrialists and Businessmen of Turkey (TETSİAD). With these collaborations, we aimed to develop and transform our own technologies together with our textile industrialists and increase the use of domestic machinery in textiles.
In addition, we also achieved a cooperation with Marmara University Innovation and Technology Transfer Application and Research Center (MİTTO) in 2020 to increase the R&D competencies of our member companies.
We made cooperation agreements with 18 different textile sector representatives and equivalent associations abroad. Within the framework of our collaborations with these organizations in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Egypt, USA, South Korea and Russia, we continue our activities with both fair participation and workshops to increase our exports to these regions, which constitute the main markets of our industry Besides, we gather and report details such as current textile sector reports for their countries, potential company information and representative company information serving specifically in the textile machinery sector from the relevant organizations and share this information with our member companies.
Apart from our activities within the scope of our domestic and international collaborations, we also have the opportunity to report the problems of our producers directly to the decision makers in our meetings with policy makers on behalf of our industry. We continue our activities with both the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Technology on what can be done for the development of our sector.
Information about Turkish Textile Machinery Sector Structure
A significant part of our companies producing in the Turkish textile machinery sector consists of dye finishing machinery manufacturers. 76 of our 225 members or 34%, produce in this field. 54 of them or 24%, produce spare parts for textile machinery. 58% of the total are manufacturers of dye finishing machines and machine spare parts.
All machines such as are manufactured domestically with high capacities; stenter, dyeing, washing, drying, sanforizing, raising, shaving, quality control, packaging, laying, cutting, etc. in textile finishing processes. We also have manufacturers in the field of dye house and finishing automation systems, denim machines, laboratory devices, sensors and test-measurement devices.
In the field of weaving; weaving preparation machines, narrow weaving machines, in the field of yarn; synthetic yarn machines, yarn transfer, twisting, winding machines, fancy yarn machines, carpet yarn fixing, high bulk etc. machines are manufactured. In the knitting section, circular knitting machines are manufactured, and in the printing field, we have companies that produce various textile printing machines (Digital printing, transfer printing, rotation printing, octopus printing, etc.).
On the other hand, in our country, in the textile machinery sub-industry, dye finishing machine parts and knitting machine parts (including knitting machine needles) can be produced, as well as parts of yarn and weaving machines.
Evaluation of 2023 for Turkish Textile Machinery Manufacturers and the Sector
As you know, 2023 has been a challenging year for the entire world and our country. Effects such as the Earthquake Disaster in our Country, the Wars in Different Parts of the World, and the Global Economic Contraction have negatively affected our Textile Machinery Sector, just like other sectors. Especially our textile industry which has negatively affected from these catastrophies; the damage to textiles, one of the largest sectors of our country's industry in the field of production, employment and export, and the slowdown in domestic investments had a negative impact on textile machinery sales. Negatively affecting the global competition of the Turkish textile industry; factors such as exchange rate pressure, high production costs, decreased purchases in target markets, and increased market diversity for the purchase of textiles and raw materials, especially in Europe and America after the pandemic, have caused the textile industry to go through difficult times.
For these reasons, although domestic textile machinery sales and imports are decreasing, our sector companies aim to increase their effectiveness in our target markets by concentrating on exports. The shrinkage of the textile industry in target markets also negatively affected our textile machinery exports. As you know, we closed the year 2022 with exports of $ 919 million. In 2023, our exports decreased by 10% and recorded as $830 million.
Our country's share in world textile machinery exports, which average $31 billion annually, is 3%. In addition, our country ranks 8th amongst the top 10 textile machinery exporting countries. Countries such as China, Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea and Belgium are the leading spots.
Imports were at a record level of $2.45 billion in 2022. In 2023, imports decreased by 20% and recorded as $1.95 billion. $860 million of this import consists of Yarn and Spinning Machines, $228 million consists of Knitting Machines, and $213 million consists of Weaving Machines.
Our country's share in world textile machinery imports, which average $31 billion annually, is 7.5%. In addition, our country ranks 4th amongst the top 10 textile machinery importer countries.
Export Markets of Turkish Textile Machinery Manufacturers
75% of our textile machinery exports consist of textile dyeing, washing, finishing and finishing machines. More than 60% of sales, together with machinery and spare parts, are made up of foreign sales.
The countries to which our textile machinery industry exports the most in 2022 are respectively; Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, India, Iran, Russia and Brazil. In 2022, our exports to Bangladesh increased by 46%, to India by 42%, and to Brazil by over 100%. When we look at our exports in 2023, in our main markets; we can state that our exports to Bangladesh and Pakistan decreased compared to the previous year, our exports to Uzbekistan, India and Iran remained at similar levels, and our exports especially to Russia, Egypt and South American countries increased. Although there is a general decrease trend in our textile machinery exports, it can be seen from these results that our companies are making intense efforts to make use of opportunities in different markets. We believe that especially Russia, Egypt, Portugal and South American countries will contribute to our market diversity in exports.
How are TEMSAD Member Companies Affected by the Current Crises?
In addition to global problems, the problems experienced by our country in its own right also leave negative effects on our textile machinery manufacturers. Many problems such as production costs, inability to reach qualified personnel, and access to finance problems affect our sector. On the other hand, within the framework of the problems experienced by our country's textile industry; the decrease in production capacities, new investments and modernizations also negatively affected domestic textile machinery sales. When we look at the investment incentive lists, we see that investments in the textile sector will decrease by more than 40% in 2023 compared to 2022. Existing factors such as prices of textile products remaining more higher than competing countries and global buyers prioritizing costs and shifting their demands to different regions have been effective.
In addition to these factors affecting the domestic market, ensuring diversity in our foreign markets and opening up to new markets is an important case for our industry. It is important for our industry that Egypt makes new investments, and India's efforts in a similar way to increase its capacity, and to diversify our exports around different markets such as Russia, Portugal, Poland and South America.
We believe that by keeping up with the changing conditions after the pandemic, our companies will achieve success in exports by increasing their power in their existing major markets and by taking advantage of opportunities in new markets. In addition, we are happy to see that our companies attach more importance to R&D investments every day. Currently, 22 of our members have R&D centers, and we think this number will increase further. Despite all the difficulties, our companies continue to develop their technologies and create differences.
Our Expectations for the World Textile Sector and Especially the Textile Machinery Sector in 2024
We expect that at least the first half of 2024 will continue similar to 2023. It is obvious that it will take time for the global slowdown and the macroeconomic problems in our country to end. As you know, the movement in the textile industry is determined by the preferences and tendencies of global buyers. Again, in this context, green transformation and sustainability topics will be one of the main agenda items for our textile industry. In addition, some specific developments are expected to have an affect on the mobility in textile geographies. One of these is India’s reaching a free trade agreement deal with EU countries. In other words, the trading of textile products within the scope of the free trade agreement between India and the EU will inevitably affect our country's textile industry.
Despite all these conditions, dealing changing circumstances and situations comes with accumulated know-how gained over the years in our textile and textile machinery sectors and our internal strength for survival gives us more hope for the coming period. I hope that we will experience a period in which our textile machinery manufacturers increase their competitiveness and make our industry stronger by pushing change.
