Turkish textile exports as expected suffered because of the earthquake as its exports in February 2023 dipped by 21.2 to $891 million compared with exports achieved in February 2022 states a report released by the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (ITHIB).
The report further revealed that textile production in the regions affected by the earthquake has not fully recovered. Currently, the factories in these regions are operating at one-third of capacity.
The textile sector’s exports accounted for 6.6 percent of Turkey’s total exports during this period, while the country’s overall exports fell by 6.4 percent to US $ 18.6 billion. Turkey’s exports of industrial goods fell by 9.5 percent to US $ 13.5 billion.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey in its capacity utilization report revealed that the average cape average capacity utilisation rate for the manufacturing sector over the past 12 months was 75.2 Compared to February of the previous year, the capacity utilisation rate for the production of textile items fell to 70.1 percent in February 2023.
The fall in exports to the European Union countries was 26.3 percent during the same period. Still, EU received the, biggest exports of textiles and raw materials in the January–February 2023 period, valued at US $ 790 million. Africa was the second-largest group of nations to which Turkey supplied textiles and raw materials during the same period. During this time, exports to African nations fell by 19.3 percent and totaled US $ 191 million.
Italy was the most significant export market for raw materials and textiles from Turkey in January and February of 2023. Italy imported during this time textiles and raw materials from Turkey worth about US $ 155 million depicting a decline of 34.5 percent.
The woven fabric product group had the highest share of 21.2 percent in total textile and raw material exports from Turkey during the period under review, followed by technical textiles which saw a 3.6 percent decline in exports for the same period bringing the total to US $ 364 million. Yarn ranked third with exports worth $334 million, a decline of 24.2 percent.
Textile exports fall in February as Turkey recovers from Earthquake
