Turkey's Textile Exports Grow 8%

Economy

Turkey's Textile Exports Grow 8%

Turkey's exports of textiles and raw materials increased by 8% to US$ 5.3 billion in the first half of 2018. From January to June, the most important export market for Turkey in this sector was Italy.

Exports to Italy rose by 5.8% in January-June 2018 to US$ 474 million. Germany was second. Exports to Germany were US$ 440 million in the first half of the year, up by 8.3%, compared to the same period of the previous year. The third major export market was Bulgaria. Exports to Bulgaria declined by 13.7% to US$ 286 million, recording the biggest drop in the first half of the year.

The most exported product in the first half of 2018 was woven fabrics. In this period, woven fabric exports increased by 8.3%, compared to the same period of 2017 and amounted to US$ 1.3 billion. The second most exported product was yarn, which constitutes 18.1% of total textile exports in Turkey. Yarn exports were worth US$ 961 million in the January-June period of 2018.

The third important product group is the knitted fabrics. In the first half, exports of knitted fabrics increased by 2.3% to US$ 801 million. The fourth most exported product group was fibres. Fibre exports increased by 16.9% in January-June 2018 to US$ 337 million.Turkish technical textiles exports up 20% Turkey also continues its growth in technical textiles. Technical textile exports increased by 20.1% in the first half to US$ 898 million.

The most exported product group from January to June was nonwovens. Exports of these products increased by 30.6% & were worth around US$ 294 million. This product group accounted for 32.7% of total technical textile exports. The second major product group in the first half of 2018 was packaging products, worth around US$ 182 million. The product group that recorded the biggest growth in the first half of the year was parachute fabrics. Exports of these products rose by 135.7%, compared to the same period last year. Germany became the most important export market. Technical textile exports to Germany during this period were worth US$ 84 million, with an increase of 23.6%. The second most important country was Italy, with an export value of US$ 58 mln & an increase of 15.8%. The third export market was USA. This country imported US$ 58.5 mln worth of technical textile products from Turkey in the first half of the year. The share of the USA was 6.5%. Exports worth US$ 480 mln were realised in the 28 EU member countries, with an increase of 26.1%. With this export figure, the share of the EU was 53.4%.