Weaving – A Legacy from Past to Present

Woven fabric industry has a great importance for the textile sector with its investment capacity and export potential. With the raw materials supply for garments and textiles, which is Turkey’s second largest export item, it constitutes one of the most important sub-sectors in the textile industry.

The archaeological findings show that the history of the woven fabric dates back to BC 6500, The findings show that the method of forming a textile surface with two yarn systems has been known since at least 8000 years ago.

Woven fabrics from the Neolithic Age that were found for the first time in our country in a carbonized fashion. Afterwards; the woven material emerged in Cyprus, Crete and Greece dating back to BC 5500. Nowadays, with the advent of technology, weaving is always developing as one of the sub-sectors in the textile industry.

Weaving, that has displayed a great progress in our country to this day, has become known in all four corners of the world with exclusively produced fabrics in Turkey. Most known types of these fabrics are:

• Sile Cloth, developed in the Şile county in Istanbul, is mostly used in garments and home textiles, often with a touch of cream, white and beige
• Buldan Cloth was first produced in the Buldan county in Denizli. In 2016, this fabric, which has various areas of usage, was awarded a geographical indication.

• Certified in 2018, Ayancık Linen Cloth has emerged after a long history of weaving in Ayancık,
• Rize Cloth, originally called the “feretiko,” used to be woven on hand looms and today its production still continues. This special cloth is generally used for curtains or for decoration purposes on tables.
• Trabzon Loincloth, often used on a daily basis by people in Trabzon, is usually woven on looms known as loincloth
• Reaching over the world with caravans for centuries, Bursa Sericulture has contributed greatly to the development of the city of Bursa in the field of
• Yeşilyurt Weavings, used in the film costumes for the movies Harry Potter and Troy, is woven in Muğla for 300 years.
• Kutnu Weaving Fabrics, produced only in Gaziantep, dates back to the 16th
• Tanzara Weaving , applied in Şebinkarahisar/Giresun since 1800s, continues to be produced without any chemical
• Hatay Silk, which can be sewn both on longitudinal and latitudinal directions, is produced in Hatay for many

WOVEN FABRIC EXPORTS END 2018 WITH GROWTH

Exports of woven fabrics increased to USD 2.5 billion by 1.7% in the period between January and December last year. In January 2019, the export of woven fabrics has been USD 188 million.

Our exports figures of woven fabrics by sub-product groups in the period of January-December 2018 show that the most important sub-product group was cotton-woven fabrics with an export value of approximately 980 million dollars. Our cotton-woven fabric exports account for 39.1% of our total woven fabric exports.

COUNTRY WITH THE HIGHEST INCREASE IN EXPORTS: TUNISIA

Italy has been the most important country in the exports of woven fabrics last year with an increase of 0.8% to around 160 million dollars. The other important countries in the exports of woven fabrics in 2018 were Spain, Germany and Romania.

In the January-December period of 2018, Tunisia was the country with the highest increase in exports with %10.3.

In January – December 2018, exports to EU countries (28), which had a share of 47.2% in woven fabric exports, amounted to USD 1.1 billion while in January 2019 it reached approximately USD 89 million.

WEAVING MACHINERY MARKET SIZE GROWS GLOBALLY

Textile machinery business continued its growth in the global market in 2017. According to the annual report published by the International Textile Manufacturers’ Federation (ITMF), shipments increased significantly in almost all machinery groups.

In 2017, worldwide shipments of shuttleless looms increased by 12% to 95,300 units. Sales of air-jet looms increased by 18%, approximately to 27,000 units, water-jet looms increased by 14% to 36,200 units, and rapier/projectile looms increased by 7% to around 32,000. In 2017, Asia became the main shipping destination for all types of shuttleless looms (air-jet, water-jet and rapier/projectile).

91% of all machinery shipments in the world were made to this market. 48% of these were water-jet looms, 31% were rapier/projectile, and 28% were air-jet looms. In the rapier/projectile weaving machinery sales, Europe had a share of 65%, and the USA 37%, while air jet machines had a share of 2% in Europe and 25% in the USA. According to the same report, Turkey imported a total of 3203 units of shuttleless looms in 2017. Of these, 2,178 were rapier/projectile looms, 965 were air-jet looms, and 60 were water-jet looms.