Business

Machinery exports exceeded $10 billion in the first 5 months

Turkey’s machinery exports increased by 8.3% in the first 5 months of the year compared to the same period of 2021 and reached $10.1 billion.

According to the data of the Machinery Exporters’ Association (MAIB), the exports of the machinery manufacturing industry reached $10.1 billion in the January-May period when the free zones are included.

In May, the highest export was made to Germany, followed by Italy and France. The EU, which started to run a foreign trade deficit due to the rapid increase in the cost of imported energy products, experienced a decrease in machinery imports from Turkey for the first time since the beginning of the global epidemic.

In his statement on export figures and developments in the sector, Kutlu Karavelioglu, Chairman of the Machinery Exporters’ Association, said that they focused on developing a long-term cooperation strategy in commercial relations with the EU and they carefully scrutinized every step in the region.

Explaining that they are constantly evaluating how practices such as the EU Green Reconciliation Action Plan, Border Carbon Regulation and Emissions Trading System will affect the sector, Karavelioglu said, “The EU Machinery Directive is expected to be revised and come into force in the near future. Our consultants in the region and our colleagues representing our country in European machinery and technology federations warn us that we will face a tsunami of new regulations and directives.”

“We will announce the sustainability action plan soon”

Kutlu Karavelioglu noted that the leading role is given to “change of machines and systems” in all of the strategic transformation plans for reducing carbon emissions of the country’s industries, and explained that the solution in all sectors passes through the machinery industry.

Noting that the machinery industry continues to produce information for Turkey with its decisive role in the digital transformation of the industry, Karavelioglu said that they will soon announce the Machinery Sector Sustainability Target and Action Plan, which focuses on the transformation of the entire manufacturing industry and is highly anticipated by the public.

“Growth in machinery and equipment investments continues for 10 quarters”

MAIB President Karavelioglu stated that machinery and equipment investments also supported the growth in the first quarter and made the following assessments:

“The growth in machinery and equipment investments, which started in the fourth quarter of 2019, has continued for 10 quarters. The increase in machinery and equipment production has reached 7 quarters. In the last 2 years, both our manufacturing investments and machinery production have increased by more than 50%. Thanks to the high added value and low import dependency in machinery manufacturing, our producer price index increase in the sector is 71%, well behind the general manufacturing industry average index, which reaches 132%.”

“We aim to get more share from the domestic market”

Kutlu Karavelioglu stated that domestic machinery manufacturers are able to keep the increase in machine prices limited as they can provide a cost advantage by increasing scale as well as added value, and concluded his words as follows:

“We aim to benefit from the advantages of our competitive power and get a greater share from the domestic market from now on. However, in the last 12 months, when our machinery exports increased to $24 billion, machinery imports reached $35 billion, and the foreign trade deficit in this area reached $11.2 billion. While global developments have made energy a large current account deficit item, machinery should be considered as a factor that will close the foreign trade deficit, not increase it. Turkey should support domestic manufacturing and localization with all its strength and without wasting time.”

Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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