Turkish Textile Plays an Effective Role in Measures Against Coronavirus Pandemic
With the increase in the number of people who want to take measures against the new type of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, which arose in China and spread out to many countries, companies producing protective medical masks and materials continue their manufacturing processes in full capacity.
The medical supplies manufacturers in Turkey, which have the capacity of producing 1 million disposable masks daily, continues to be a growing sector with high potential in terms of the number of firms operating in the industry, product diversity capacity and the expanding market size.
Turkey, which possesses great potential and infrastructure in terms of producing protective masks and medical supplies, is able to produce 1 million pieces of disposable masks in a day, as well as performing the production of the masks, named N95 and N99, providing top protection used particularly by medical personnel.
Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank stated that the disposable mask production capacity can increase to 2 million per day and the raw materials of masks can support up to 8 million daily productions.
MEB produced ultrasonic surgical mask production machine
Within the scope of the measures taken against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the production capacity of vocational and technical Anatolian high schools was activated while mass production of various products ranging from cleaning and disinfection products to masks, disposable gowns and overalls to face protection shields was initiated.
As a result of the R&D studies initiated by the Ministry of National Education (MEB) within the scope of the measures taken against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the manufacturing of an automatic 3-layer wired ultrasonic surgical protective mask production machine was completed in Istanbul Küçükköy Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School. Production of 100 thousand surgical protective masks per day started in the high school.
88 countries have requested assistance from Turkey
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, in the process of struggle against a new type of coronavirus (COVID-19), a total of 88 countries reported requests of medical supplies and equipment from Turkey.
Ministers Koca, emphasized that Turkey’s health system is sufficiently powerful, whereas it is self-adequate and in much better shape than the Europe zone in terms of protective equipment.
Koca, pointed out that there are many requests from abroad regarding medical material supply, further expressed the following: ‘‘We made an effort to meet the needs of nearly thirty countries. The most recent demand was from Germany with 2 million medical protective masks. We will be providing them in the next few days. The United Kingdom also had a new demand. We will do our best in order to provide similar support to the United Kingdom. In this compelling period, I would like to note that there are 88 countries requesting medical equipment from us.’’
On the other hand, the protective medical masks, overalls, and disinfectants produced in the textile factories and sewing houses within the body of the Ministry of National Defense, were sent to Spain and Italy by military cargo aircraft.
Turkey is a Reliable Country in Manufacturing and Supply Chain
Turkey Exporters Assembly (TIM) Chairman Ismail Gülle and Ahmet Şişman, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (İTHİB), assessed the effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the national economy as guests on the program of Ali Çağatay on Bloomberg HT TV channel.
TIM Chairman Ismail Gülle declared the following on the program: ‘‘Our export volume, which broke records in the period between January and February, fell due to the pandemic outbreak in the recipient countries as of 15 March. But, through the exports that we carried out in this environment, the whole world has seen that Turkey is a reliable country in manufacturing and supply chain.’’
Gülle said that, as of today, we have seen that human health and reliable production are more important in manufacturing processes rather than price, and continued his statement as follows:
‘‘The lesson we will take here is to highlight our self-sufficient production capabilities. For example, we saw that we were able to produce protective medical masks more than our needs. We understood that we left some industries unprotected by considering that we could obtain those products cheaper from China. After this, we need to protect these sectors and make them both self-sufficient and increase their exports. At the end of this compelling period, habits and strategies in the world will change. Currently, due to what we are doing here, Turkey is three steps forward that the others. We will maintain the advantage that we provided to better places.’’
Ahmet Şişman, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of İTHİB, made the following evaluations on the subject:
‘‘Our exports volume in March was completed with a 17 percent decrease. However, the export of technical textiles increased by 3-3.5 percent. This is the result of the demand for nonwoven masks and protective clothing. Since medical masks were imported before, we had no production experience. Currently, many companies have started to produce masks. We have no shortage of raw materials (fabric). We are one of the biggest manufacturers in Europe in this regard. We produce raw materials that can lead to the production of 1.5 billion protective medical masks per month. We export the excess amount. Ready-to-wear garment manufacturers are organizing their lines to produce protective clothing. We are also increasing the production of protective clothing. There are facilities producing 2 million pieces per month. Considering that we can export excess amounts in protective clothing, we evaluate our options on what we can do for this. We can easily produce 15-20 million protective clothing outfits per month and direct the excess amounts to export. These products, each of which sold for 5-7 US dollars, can provide a significant export return.’’
Şişman finalized his statements as follows:
‘‘Among our technical textile manufacturers, we have companies that are good in many areas. We can provide and maintain standards in this sector and move forward from that point. Production of technical textiles promises a bright future, therefore, we are trying to direct our companies to this field.’’
