CONCLUSION
Turkish textile sector, focusing on the investments in cotton yarn and then cotton weaving in the 1979s, started investing in circular knitting and apparel in the 1980s. Showing interest in the economic liberalism and export-oriented policies of the Motherland Party, textile and apparel manufacturers started to make intensive exports to Europe, and this brought about new machine purchases to increase the capacity in this period. However, machinery imports of the textile sector remained at the level of $ 0.5 billion and were not able to reach $ 1 billion until the 1990s. This figure increased with the large investments in the field of textiles in the 90s. Machinery import figures began to hover around $ 1-1.5 billion annually. When Customs Union agreement signed with the EU raised expectations in 1996, Turkey broke the record with $ 2.36 million imports of textile and apparel machines. The decline in investments during the crisis period brings about sudden jumps in the post-crisis period. Declining to the lowest level in 2009, Turkey almost experienced a boom in 2010 and 2011. According to the results of the first 6 months, $ 624.3 million purchase of machinery was performed.
The sector, which did not stop modernization even when the new investments slowed down in the field of textile machinery and parts, is increasing interest in innovative machines each passing day. Particularly, the demand for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly machines shows a steady increase. According to the data from Turkish Electricity Distribution Cooperation for the year 2009, ranking 4th in electricity consumption with the rate of 7.7, it is in the first position in the manufacturing industry. Especially dyeing and finishing processes make up the fields in which the energy is used the most intensively. In the cost components of dyeing and finishing enterprises, energy has a ratio of 18-25 percent and the increase in the unit price of energy pushes up this rate constantly.
Using the primary energy resources such as electricity and natural gas intensively, textile manufacturers turn towards the machines with new technologies in order to bring down the costs. This, in turn, brings about a rise in the purchase prices of the machines; however, it brings along a reduction in costs in the long term. While the lack of domestic production or the absence of the desired quality in the field of weaving, knitting, spinning, printing and apparel machinery increases imports in these areas, the domestic dyeing and finishing machinery shows that the production has reached a certain strength.
In 2015, China and India are stated to take the lead as the most influential buyers in the global market which is expected to reach $ 20.75 billion by then. Competing with these Asian powers, the Turkish textile sector aims to become one of the top 5 countries with the dynamics both in the domestic market as well as export markets. Besides the conventional production, the Turkish textile sector’s transition to high value-added products and new investments in technical textiles form the basic dynamism of the next period. Especially the ever-increasing costs in the energy and raw materials entries and the new products demanded by export markets are to set the stage for the machinery and equipment to be preferred in this period.
