Pharma Turkey January February 2019

IKMIB leads the way
The target in chemical exports is $20 billion in 2019
In the first half of this year, we
had the excitement of elections
at İKMİB. After I was elected the
President at the General Assembly
held in April, we started to work
very swiftly. As of the day I took
office, we have carefully and
primarily focused on the activities
that will increase the exports in
the chemical industry as well as
any problems and solutions. In
line with this aim, we organized
various national and international
events, and we worked towards
our target to become the second
most exporting sector on an
annual basis.
2018 was a year of records for
the exports despite unfavorable
circumstances such as floating rate,
high interest rate and high inflation
in the second half of the year.
Providing the largest contribution
to the growth of Turkey, the export
has been the main dimension
that has enabled the companies
to survive in this difficult period.
In 2018, Turkey broke a record
in exports and chemical industry
achieved to come off second-best
sector in export figures for fourth
times on a monthly basis thanks
to its performance. The chemical
industry achieved great success in
September, October and December
in 2018, and achieved to be the
second most exporting sector in
Turkey. As we promised, we took
firm steps to get the second place
permanently.
In 2018, the exports of chemical
industry, one of Turkey’s leading
sectors, amounted to $17 billion
444 million. Thus, it exceeded the
$17 billion target, getting the third
place after automotive and textile
in exports. Compared to 2017, the
sector exports increased by 8.23
percent in terms of value. In 2018,
our chemical exports reached 19.5
billion tons with an increase of 7.18
percent compared to the previous
year. When we look at the year 2018
on a monthly basis, October was the
month of highest export figure with
1 billion 594 million dollars.
In 2018, the countries to which
we exported the most were Egypt,
Germany, Iraq, USA, Spain, Italy,
England, Netherlands, Greece and
Iran. Also, in 2018, the European
Union countries ranked first with
a share of 6.70 billion dollars in
exports and 38.41 percent among
the country groups to which the
most of chemical industry exports
were made. EU countries were
followed by Near and Middle East
Asian countries with 3.13 billion
dollars of export and a share of
17.97%. Other European countries
came in third with 3.23 billion
dollars in exports and a share of
13.04%, North African countries
came in fourth with 1.71 billion
dollars in exports and a share of
9.85%, and other Asian countries
came in fifth with 1.38 billion dollars
in exports and a share of 7.91%.
We have 12 sub-sectors in the
6 Pharma