Turkish Textile Machinery Exports Increased by 20% in the First 10 Months of 2024

Interview: Dilek Hayırlı

TEMSAD President Adil Nalbant said “Our sector, which achieved market diversity in 2024, managed to increase its exports. In the first 10 months of 2024, our exports increased by 20% compared to the previous year and reached 785 million dollars. Among the target markets that caused this increase; Egypt, Russia and South American countries stand out.”

The Textile Machinery and Accessories Industrialists Association (TEMSAD), a non-governmental organization that includes textile machinery, textile machinery spare parts and textile chemicals manufacturers, was founded in 1998. TEMSAD, which consists of almost all domestic manufacturers, currently has 189 members. 61 of these companies, or 33%, are dye and finishing machine manufacturers, while 32, or 17%, are textile machinery spare parts manufacturers. The exports of the companies, 85% of which are exporters, were realized as 830 million dollars in 2023.

According to TURKSTAT labor force data; Turkish textile machinery industry provides employment for 9500 people. 22 members of TEMSAD have R&D and 4 members have Design Center. TEMSAD, which has increased its collaborations with important textile sector representatives in recent years, establishes the foundations for the textile and textile machinery sectors to actively provide productive interaction. In this context, among the organizations it cooperates with in Turkey; Fashion and Ready-to-Wear Federation (MHGF), Turkish Textile Finishing Industrialists Association (TTTSD) and Turkish Textile Industry Employers Union (TTSİS). Cooperation agreements are made with 19 different textile sector representatives and equivalent associations abroad. TEMSAD; Within the framework of the collaborations made with these organizations located in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Egypt, USA, South Korea, Russia and Poland, continues its activities with both fair participations and workshops aimed at increasing exports to these regions, which constitute the main markets of the sector.

TEMSAD President Adil Nalbant made evaluations for our Tekstil Teknoloji magazine for the Turkish Textile Machinery Industry special issue. The highlights of Nalbant’s evaluations are as follows:

“We Exported 785 Million Dollars in Textile Machinery in the First 10 Months of 2024”

As you know, 2023 and 2024 were a year of difficulties for the whole world and our country. The earthquake disaster in our country, the wars in different parts of the world, and the global economic contraction affected our textile machinery sector as well as other sectors. Factors that negatively affected the global competition of the Turkish textile sector; such as exchange rate pressure, high production costs, the decrease in purchases in target markets, and the increase in market diversity for textile and raw material purchases, especially in Europe and America after the pandemic, caused the textile sector to go through difficult times.

For these reasons, while domestic textile machinery sales and imports have decreased, our sector companies have aimed to increase their effectiveness in our target markets by focusing on exports. Although the contraction experienced by the textile sector in target markets negatively affected our textile machinery exports in 2023, our sector, which achieved market diversity in 2024, managed to increase its exports. We closed 2022 with 919 million dollars of exports. In 2023, our exports decreased by 10% and amounted to 830 million dollars. In the first 10 months of 2024, our exports increased by 20% compared to the previous year and reached 785 million dollars. Among the target markets that caused this increase; Egypt, Russia and South American countries stand out. Turkish textile manufacturers, who moved to Egypt in particular, also made significant contributions to this increase.

Our country’s share of the world textile machinery exports, which average 28 billion dollars annually, is 3%. In addition, our country ranks 7th among the top 10 textile machinery exporters. China, which ranks first (has 26% of the market with 7.2 billion dollars of exports), is followed by Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea and the USA.

“Textile Machinery Imports Dropped by 21%

Imports reached a record level of 2.45 billion dollars in 2022. Imports decreased by 20% in 2023 and became 1.95 billion dollars. In the first 10 months of 2024; imports decreased by 21% and reached 1 billion 250 million dollars. 462 million dollars of these imports consist of spinning machines, 157 million dollars of spare parts, 121 million dollars of weaving machines, and 107 million dollars of knitting machines. Our country’s share of the world textile machinery imports, which are at an average annual level of 28 billion dollars, is 7%. In addition, our country ranks 4th among the top 10 textile machinery importers, after the USA, China, and India, respectively. As of the end of 2024, we expect exports to approach 1 billion dollars with a 20% increase in exports and imports to fall to 1.5 billion dollars with a 21% decrease in imports.