The export rate of the Turkish textile and raw materials sector, among the world’s leading textile exporters, decreased by 8.4% in August 2023 and amounted to 973 million dollars. According to ITHIB’s report, exports of textiles and raw materials increased by 12.5% in August 2023 compared to the previous month, while decreasing by 8.4% compared to August 2022. As of August, Türkiye’s overall exports increased by 1.6% to 21.6 billion dollars. The share of textile and raw materials sector in Turkish exports was reported to be 4.5%, while its share in industrial exports was 6.4%.
In the January-August period of 2023, the highest exports of textiles and raw materials were made to EU (27) countries by maintaining their place in the export rankings. Exports to EU (27) countries decreased by 20.4% compared to the same period of 2022 and amounted to 3.1 billion dollars.
The second country group to where Türkiye exported the most textile and raw materials between January-August 2023 was recorded as African countries. In this period, exports to African countries decreased by 17.6% to 797 million dollars.
In the January-August 2023 period, exports in terms of quantity decreased by 6% and were above 1.7 million tons. In the same period, exports to EU countries in terms of quantity decreased by 17.8% to 628 thousand tons. In addition, the second most exported country group by quantity in this period was Middle Eastern countries with a share of 11.4% and 192 thousand tons.
Textile and raw materials exports to Italy down by 27.8%
In the January-August period of 2023, there was a general decline in Turkish textile and raw materials exports to the leading countries. Exports of textiles and raw materials to Italy, ranking first as the most important export market, decreased by 27.8% in this period and amounted to approximately 590 million dollars. After Italy, the most exported markets were Germany, the USA, Spain, England, Morocco, Egypt and Bulgaria, respectively. Turkish textile and raw materials exports to Germany, ranked second, decreased by 18.6% and amounted to approximately 543 million dollars.
Looking at the overall framework, there was a year-on-year decline in the January-August 2023 period. In addition, total exports of textiles and raw materials decreased by 8.4% in August 2023. Considering the other prominent countries in Turkish textile and raw materials exports in this period, exports to Bulgaria and Egypt increased by 8.7%.
Woven fabric ranked first with a share of 20.7%
Regarding the exports of the Turkish textile and raw materials sector within the framework of product groups, the woven fabric product group stood out with a share of 20.7% in the January-August period of 2023 and the export value amounted to approximately 1.7 billion dollars. The woven fabric product group, showing a decrease of 9.6% compared to August 2022, maintained its first place despite this decrease. Technical textiles, the second most exported product group in the January-August period, decreased by 5.7% and its exports amounted to approximately 1.5 billion dollars. Exports of the yarn product group, ranked third, decreased by 21.7% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The first three product groups were followed by knitted fabrics, home textiles, fibers and garment sub-industry. Among these product groups, only garment sub-industry exports increased by 6.6% in the January-August period compared to the same period of the previous year.
The most important sub-product group of the woven fabric product group, ranked first, was woven fabric from synthetic artificial filament yarns with a share of 40.3% and an export value of 643 million dollars. In the January-August period of 2023, 29.7% of the total exports of technical textiles, ranked second, was recorded as nonwoven fabrics sub-product group. It was stated that the most important sub-product group of yarn exports, ranked third, was yarns from synthetic artificial filament fibers with an export value of 560 million dollars, while the share of this product group in total yarn exports was announced as 40.4%.