Turkey's technical textile exports showed a 75 percent increase compared to the 2019 period. An immediate rise occurred in the production and export figures of technical textiles with Covid-19. In 2020, Turkey was one of the countries where an increased demand was widely lodged in world markets. Turkey's technical textile exports during the period January-December 2020 rose by 75 percent compared to 2019. Technical textile exports, which amounted to 1 billion 724 million dollars in 2019, exceeded the year-end target of 2.5 billion dollars and further reached 3 billion dollars. Exports were made to 192 countries, mainly Germany, USA, England, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, France, Romania, Poland, Iran, Egypt, Israel, Canada, Bulgaria and China.
Usage Areas Are Prevalent
In short, the usage areas of technical textiles, which are defined as textile products developed to be used as composite or main product for many sectors by going out of conventional areas, are very common as Clothtech, Buildtech, Medtech, Agrotech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Mobiltech, Oekotech, Patchtech, Protech, Sporttech. The usage areas of technical textiles called Gastrotech are becoming widespread day by day. In order to meet the increasing demand and develop new products, facilities have been established and new investments have been made for the production of technical textiles developed by R&D centers.
"Export Figures Are Makes Us Proud Of"
Commenting on the increase in export figures, İthib Chairman Ahmet Öksüz said, “Our sub-sector, in which we experienced the main increase in our exports during the epidemic period, was technical textiles. We are proud that our technical textile exports reached the highest export data in the history of the republic.’’ Öksüz shared his assumptions on New Year targets for technical textile exports would be for him around 3 billion dollars. Particularly since March, as Turkish textiles are meeting the intense demand for medical textiles in a period first Covid cases were public and talked about investment incentives entitled with Turkish textiles and said,, "In the pandemic period, technical textile industry was granted for investment incentive certificate to cover personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns and alike around three billion TL and also for non-woven fabric investment around 2.5 billion TL. We anticipate that our sector, which ranks 19th in global technical textile exports, will increase its global ranking in the coming years, especially with the investments it has made in recent years. ”
''Nonwoven Product Uses Widespread''
Öksüz, said that there has been an increase in the production of masks made of nonwovens and again in the personal protective equipment actively used in medical field in Turkey. As Turkey has foreign trade surplus in nonwoven fabric production that push the nation to the fore, Öksüz said, , " Companies accelerating investments that require high technology, signing value-added exports. While the price per kilogram in exports in the textile and raw materials industry is 4.2 dollars, a kilogram price in technical textiles can reach up to 20 dollars.’’ According to İTHİB data, the most exported sub-product groups are ‘Ready-to-Wear from Technical Textile Material and Non-Woven’ ,Öksüz mentioned about these two product groups responsible for more than 50 per cent of the technical textile exports.
''Transition from Textile to Technical Textile is Increasing''
Öksüz stated that bags and sacks made of technical textiles for packaging and fabrics (cord fabric) produced from high-strength yarn and used in the production of inner and outer tires are among the important product groups and said that technical textiles will gain a significant share from traditional textiles thanks to the use of technical textiles in many sectors. Öksüz said, “We observe that the system will rapidly evolve towards technical textiles where R&D and innovation are at the forefront. We think that the epidemic period accelerates this transformation process. Technical textiles have been increasing their share in global textile and raw materials exports every year, especially in the last 10 years.’’
"We Want to Make This Success Continual We Achieved"
Öksüz stated that a record was set in technical textile exports in 2020, “We aim to maintain the success here with our investments in technical textile products with high R&D and innovation power. We carry out our work with Turkey's textile and raw material exports supports İTHİB as the umbrella organization of technical textiles should cooperate with our university as well as to strengthen the human capital of our digital transformation of the Ministry of Commerce to provide UR-D."
