According to the ‘Export Performance Report, July 2021’ published by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (İTHİB), the Turkish textile and raw materials sector closed the first seven months of the year with 7 billion dollars. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the textile exports rate increased from 5.6% to 5.9%; In July 2021, it increased by 4.6% compared to the same month of the previous year and reached 924 million dollars.
While there was a decrease of 18.7% in textile export figures in July 2021 compared to June, the export figures of the sector, which had a 5.9% share in Turkey’s general exports in the same period of 2020, decreased to 5.6% in July of this year. In the January-July 2021 period, Turkey’s overall exports increased by 10.2% to 16 billion dollars.
40% of textile exports to the EU market
In the January-July period of 2021, exports of textiles and raw materials mostly go to EU countries, while exports to these 27 EU countries increased by 42.7% compared to the same period of 2020 and amounted to 3 billion dollars. In the first half of the year, the second country group to which Turkey exported the most textiles and raw materials was the former Eastern Bloc countries. Exports to this region increased by 40.6% and reached 761 million dollars. In this period, exports to EU countries on a quantity basis increased by 34% and amounted to 683 thousand tons.
In the first half of the year, Italy ranked first among the countries that exported the most textiles and raw materials. In this period, exports to the country amounted to 619 million dollars with an increase of 58.7%. After Italy, Germany ranked second with 575 million dollars and an increase of 21.2%, and the USA with an export value of 472 million dollars and an increase of 53%. Other countries with the highest exports were England, Spain, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Egypt, Belarus and Russia, respectively.
In the first six months of the year, the export quantity reached 2 million tons
In the January-July 2021 period, the exports of the Turkish textile and raw materials sector increased by 37.5% compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 2 million tons. When we look at the top 10 countries to which Turkey exports the most textiles and raw materials, it was seen that exports increased in all countries on the basis of quantity. While the most important export market in this field was Italy with a share of 8.1%, total textile and raw material exports to the country increased by 41.9% in the first six months of the year and amounted to 135 thousand tons. Again, when analysed on the basis of quantity, China, which was the 5th largest export market of the sector in this period, became the country with the highest increase in exports with a value of 70 thousand tons with an increase of 307%. The second country with the highest increase in this period was Pakistan with an increase of 210.9%.
Yarn ranks first in Turkey’s textile and raw material exports
When the exports of the Turkish textile and raw materials sector are analysed on the basis of product groups, in the first half of the year, the yarn product group came to the fore with an increase of 88%. Yarn exports increased by 56.5% in July compared to the same month of the previous year and reached 198 million dollars. Technical textiles, which is the second product group with the most exports in the same period, decreased by 8.5% and ended the first half of the year with 1.4 billion dollars worth of exports. In July, technical textile exports decreased by 48.9% and amounted to 157 million dollars.
In third place, woven fabric exports amounted to 1.3 billion dollars with an increase of 26.1% in the January-July period of 2021, and to 173 million dollars with a decrease of 2.6% in July. Looking at home textile exports, it was seen that in the January-July period, exports increased by 38.6% to 1.3 billion dollars, and in July, the home textile industry realized an export of 181 million dollars with a decrease of 1.4%. In the first seven months of the year, knitted fabric exports increased by 57.1% to 1.2 billion, while fibre exports increased by 65.2% to 539 million.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey shows that the capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing of textile products increased by 19% to 80.7% in July 2021 compared to the same month of the previous year. According to the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute, the textile industry production index increased by 70.6% compared to the same month of the previous year. The textile employment figure for May 2021 reached 485 thousand with an increase of 15% compared to May 2020.