Harvard Center for Textile & Apparel Research

B.Tan Overview of the Turkish Textile and Apparel Industry 24
A study on the age distribution of the machinery used in the spinning and weaving in
Turkey reveals that 78.8% of the open-end and 38.8% of the ring machines were six-years
old or newer [20].
U.S. textile machinery exports to Turkey totaled only $6 million in 1998, a 78.3
percent decline from the $27.6 million in exports during 1997. However, Turkey imported
$15.8 million worth of textile machinery in 1999 for a 162.8 percent increase over 1998.
Thus, in 1999, Turkey was the eleventh largest market for this industry sector in U.S.
Although, a domestic textile machinery industry exists, it is not developed enough to
support the textile and apparel industry. Heavy reliance on imported textile machinery
creates additional problems for the industry such as increased costs, availability, timeliness
and cost of after sales technical service, etc.
In addition to this over capacity, mainly stagnant European markets, depreciation of
the Euro against the dollar, and rising production costs reduced the capacity utilization
ratios for textiles from 81% in 1995 to 77% in 1998, and for apparel from 90% in 1995 to
80% in 1998 (Table 22).
Table 22. Capacity Utilization Ratios (%) in Textile and Apparel Industry
Textile Apparel
Year Public Private Total Public Private Total
1995 58.4 82.6 81.4 81.80 90.50 89.80
1996 60.3 83.9 82.9 59.70 83.70 85.50
1997 62.5 83.9 82.9 67.10 84.20 82.70
1998 55.2 78.1 77.5 59.40 82.1 79.60
1999 (Jan-Sep) 34.8 70.9 69.8 36.80 78.50 73.60
Source: State Planning Organization: Fundamental Economic Indicators [3].
Materials such as buttons, zippers, and tags are also produced locally at medium to
high quality levels. The apparel industry uses both domestic and imported supply in
production. Chemicals used in dyeing and finishing are mainly imported.