Our 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.
“Our Exports to Russia, Egypt and South American Countries are Increasing”
70% of our textile machinery exports consist of textile dyeing, washing, drying, finishing machines. Together with the machinery and spare parts, more than 60% of the sales consist of overseas sales. When we look at our exports for 2023, we can say that our exports to our main markets; Bangladesh and Pakistan decreased compared to the previous year, our exports to Uzbekistan, India and Iran remained at similar levels and our exports to Russia, Egypt and South American countries in particular increased. We can also see from these results that our companies are making great efforts to evaluate the opportunities in different markets in our textile machinery exports. We can say that especially Russia, Egypt, Portugal and South American countries contribute to our market diversity in exports.
“Our Companies Are Making Significant Developments in Recycling Machinery Manufacturing”
We would also like to state that there are new and supported works that have recently started to be produced. Increasing the production of circular knitting machines, starting to produce knitting machine needles locally, and manufacturing brode embroidery machines for the first time are some of the localization moves. On the other hand, very important developments are also being made in the manufacturing of textile recycling machines. Our 2 companies that have achieved success in this field have established partnerships with 2 major European companies. In addition, the production of quality control machines supported by artificial intelligence brings a new breath to the sector. In the dyeing, washing, drying, finishing, and finishing groups, where we are more experienced in the field, we have also reached an important position in terms of energy and water savings and reducing environmental impact.
“Production Costs, Access to Financing Problems Affect Our Sector”
In addition to global problems, the problems our country experiences in its own right naturally reflect negatively on our textile machinery manufacturers. Many problems such as production costs, inability to find qualified personnel, and access to financing affect our sector. On the other hand, within the framework of the difficulties experienced by our country’s textile sector; the decrease in production capacities, new investments, and modernizations also negatively affect domestic textile machinery sales. When we look at the investment incentive lists, we see that investments in the textile sector have decreased by more than 40% in 2023 compared to 2022. Current factors such as prices in textile products remaining more expensive than in rival countries and global buyers prioritizing costs and shifting their demands to different regions are effective.
“Sustainability and Green Transformation will Continue to Be Our Main Agenda”
It is obvious that the global slowdown and macroeconomic problems in our country will take time to come to an end. As you know, the movement in the textile sector is determined by the preferences and tendencies of global buyers. Again, in this context, green transformation and sustainability issues will continue to be one of the main agenda items for our textile sector. In this regard, we will continue our work to highlight and prefer our technologies that contribute to the sustainability of our sector’s textile industry production processes and provide clean production. In this regard, we held a joint consultation meeting with the textile sector union managers within the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) in September. In this meeting, we explained the contributions of our sector to sustainability and presented the innovations and technologies of our 25 member companies in this field to the authorities with a presentation.
“We Have Taken An Important Step Towards Preferring Local Machines in Investments”
As a result of a study we conducted with the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Turkiye, we have brought an exception to the tax exemption with investment incentive certificates of the textile industry for 10 product groups in which we are strong in production and export. We have put into practice the decision to apply additional customs duties for these products to be preferred in investments with the support of the ministry. Thus, we have taken an important step towards ensuring that local preferences are provided in investments for these 10 product groups in which we are strong in production and export, namely the dyeing and finishing machinery group.
“We Need to Be More Hopeful for the Coming Period”
The experience gained through years of accumulation in our textile and textile machinery sectors and our strong structure in terms of keeping up with the conditions and staying afloat require us to be more hopeful for the coming period. I hope that we will experience a period in which our textile machinery manufacturers increase their competitive power and make our sector stronger by creating differences. We believe that by keeping up with the changing conditions after the pandemic, our companies will increase their power in their current main markets and also evaluate opportunities in new markets and achieve success in exports. In addition, it makes us happy to see that our companies attach more importance to R&D investments every day.
“We are Trying to Popularize the TURQUM Machinery Quality Certificate”
In the upcoming process; we have full faith that the future of our sector will be bright. If we can increase the protective measures in our favor in the short term against the ruthless competitiveness of China and Far Eastern countries and if we can fully fight against unfair competition, we will increase our power even more. We have to take measures against unfair competition both within our own sector and against foreign countries. We should also implement scale and standard applications in some products within ourselves. At this point, we attach importance to the issue of domestic market surveillance and control and we are trying to popularize the “TURQUM – Machinery Quality Certificate” created under the leadership of MAKFED in our sector.