According to the MAIB statement, machinery industry carried its exports to $ 1.6 billion by increasing its exports by $ 66 million in November compared to November 2019.
Turkish machine industry came close to last year’s export figures in main markets such as Germany, USA and UK. The sector that reduces the export drop to a single digit in many countries closed in quarantine.
In the Russian market, which continues to rise, the sector increased its exports by 21.6 percent. Kutlu Karavelioğlu, President of the Machinery Exporters Association stated that a strong recovery in industrial production in Turkey is starting to rise to its previous levels, he said:
‘’ This year, when machinery and equipment investments decreased by 16 percent in Germany and the UK and 11 percent in the USA, our machine industry will close it with a 9 percent increase in machinery and equipment investments. The recovery in the country is reflected in our export data positively. It is estimated that world machinery exports will shrink by 12 percent at the end of 2020 with a loss of nearly $ 300 billion. We will be able to keep our loss down to 5 percent, below $ 1 billion.
Turkey’s year-end estimate is $ 17 billion in machinery export. However, early Christmas holidays may delay some shipments per year. Our production and capacity utilization rates started to increase. Our comparative indicators are better than many countries. Germany, one of our main markets, fell by 13 percent in machinery imports while Turkey fell by percent. The UK’s imports from us decreased only 3.1 percent, while machinery imports from the world fell 19 percent. Many similar examples show that we can increase our market share even when our exports are falling, a sign that we will go positive before our competitors and will spend 2021 more efficiently with new orders.’’
‘’ Self-confidence towards the sector has increased. ‘’
Karavelioğlu stated that they carried out a new research in November to determine the effect of coronavirus on machine manufacturer companies and that they achieved striking results when they analyzed the responses of the companies, and gave the following information:
‘’ We observe that the sector’s self-confidence has increased compared to the early days of the epidemic. The sector seems to have gained an awareness that it will turn this crisis in its favor, provided that it can maintain its liquidity. We are seeing an increase in our orders and expansion in modernization investments. Our capacity utilization rates have started to rise towards the usual levels, but we still have nearly 30 percent idle potential for new orders. The sector’s self-confidence has increased.’’
Although the increase started after seven quarters in machinery and equipment investments in Turkey there is a loss of $ 1 trillion in global volume and it is expected to reach pre-epidemic level by mid-2022.
Karavelioğlu, said:
‘’ We have a very tough two years, we need to protect our domestic manufacturers. The machine production increased by 5 percent in Turkey this year. Th increase is positive, but the difference between the two rates is an indicator of a significant increase in imports. While the world machinery import has decreased by 12 percent, we are one of the few countries whose imports have increased.
Import growth for domestic manufacturers has reached 10.5 percent in 10 months and 32 percent in the last 3 months. Dumped and financed goods of Far Eastern countries have a great impact on this increase. Turkey to machines from Asia first 10 months have paid more than $ 2.2 billion of money. However, in the world machinery trade, price is no longer considered. Developed countries look to timely delivery, trust and quality. An industrialist should seek these three conditions first in his own country.’’
Karavelioğlu stated that the Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which entered into force with the signature of 15 Asian countries last month, covers 2.7 million people and an economic size of $ 26 trillion, he said:
‘’ While it is spoken that the global value chain will shorten towards the west, Asian countries have made great cooperation. Domestic trade, which is around 40 percent of the region’s exports, took a step to bring it to 60 percent. The RCEP region will now attract more attention and investment from the global capital and financial sector. To take part in this competition must be more active in the region and Turkey should make the reciprocity axis of trade and investment agreement with Asia-Pacific countries. The support given to the machinery manufacturing industry should not be lagging behind rival countries.
Turkey’s machinery imports will reach $ 8 billion until the end of the year, Turkey will be able to export $ 750 million of machinery annually to the RCEP region. A sector that makes 65% of its exports to Europe and North America, why not get more shares from the east? While we have reached a level of quality that requires us to highlight our own brands, we will not hesitate to defend against countries that block our machines until this is achieved. As we cannot download, we must socially resist this almost accepted one-way traffic.’’
‘’ We maintain a close relationship with Germany. ‘’
Stating that the technical and commercial partner of the machinery sector that wants to be competitive in the Asian market will continue to be members of the European Union, Karavelioğlu continued his assessment as follows:
‘’ While we are getting ready to compete with the East, we continue to develop new projects with our partners in the west, especially on digitalization, automation and Industry 4.0 applications. We also maintain a much closer relationship with Germany, where our understanding of quality and business culture coincide. In our last activity we held the previous week with the Technology Academy of which we are a member, we evaluated how we can increase the existing cooperation between the sectors and companies of the two countries. The Academy, which has established two branches in China, Turkey branch will look for ways to implement so as to escape our domestic manufacturing. We will continue our work with our industry brand with the same determination. ‘’
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu