FABRIC INDUSTRY
Having the largest share in Turkish industrial production, the textile industry is one of the first established industries in Turkey. The fabric industry as a sub-sector of the huge Turkish textile industry has improved significantly in recent years, since the Turkish clothing and home textile industries have had a significant role in the world’s clothing and home textile markets in the last two decades.
The Turkish fabric finishing sector has a level of processing all the capacity of grey fabric. This sector is equivalent to the European Union in terms of processing capacity, modern technology, qualified workforce, and especially product quality.
Today, the Turkish fabric industry has competitive advantages in international markets, particularly in terms of its technology, extensive product range and the quality, design and creativity of its products. In addition to its well-developed structure, it employs a highly skilled labor force. Also, the Turkish fabric industry has great flexibility and ability to modernize its production, and adapt itself to new technologies. This ability allows the industry to reduce its reaction time to changes in consumer demand in international markets. Thus, the Turkish fabric industry satisfies its customers by meeting all their needs with the quality of its products together with its strong service ability of quick response and on-time delivery. All these features have enabled Turkish fabric manufacturers and exporters to earn a good reputation in international markets.
PRODUCTION
The Turkish fabric industry, which produces almost all kinds of fabrics for apparel, home textiles, upholstery and technical applications, has a well-developed structure, especially in production based on cotton, wool and man-made raw materials.
A large amount of fabric production is based on cotton. The fabric industry based on cotton consists of two segments. One is composed of large scale companies which have production facilities integrated vertically in all stages of fabric production, from fiber processing, spinning and weaving to dying, printing and finishing. Many of them also have manufacturing facilities for ready-made goods such as clothing or home textiles. The other one is composed mainly of non-integrated companies on a small scale. These companies cooperate with the Turkish finishing industry, which is one of the vital sub-sectors of the Turkish textile industry.
The sector meets its raw material needs mostly from domestic sources. As an important world cotton grower, Turkey ranked seventh in the world production of cotton with around 738 thousand tons in 2015/16 term. Although Turkey is among main cotton growers in the world, domestic cotton does not meet the production demand of the country. Therefore, Turkey is the fourth largest cotton importer after Bangladesh, Vietnam and China.
As well as the cotton textile industry, the Turkish man-made textile sector is also a well developed industry. Having large capacity of synthetics in the world, Turkey has a large production potential for synthetic fabrics based especially on 100% polyester and polyester blends with cotton, viscose, nylon, polyamide, wool, linen and/or multi-blends of them.
Being the third largest mohair producer in the world, Turkey also has a strong wool industry. The majority of wool products meet the demand of clothing producers and exporters.
The fabric mills are mainly concentrated in Istanbul, Bursa, Adana, Denizli, Kahramanmaras, Izmir, Gaziantep, Tekirdag, Kayseri and Usak. Many of the integrated mills are located in Istanbul, Bursa, Kahramanmaras, Adana and Gaziantep. Today, Turkish fabric manufacturers are aware of the increasing trend in international markets for healthier and more environment-friendly products, and have adapted themselves to these developments. Many Turkish fabric manufacturers have ecological labels for their products. Many of them have best known eco-labels like Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Organic Exchange, GOTS, etc.
Turkish fabric manufacturers are aware of the importance of quality, and many have national and international quality certificates.
EXPORTS
The total value of fabrics exported in 2015 was about USD 5 billion. The main products exported in 2015 were knitted fabrics, woven synthetic fabrics and woven cotton fabrics.
Source: © Republic of Turkey – Ministry of Economy, 2016
http://www.economy.gov.tr/portal/content/conn/UCM/uuid/dDocName:EK-021150