Turkey’s exports last year hit an all-time high of $168.1 billion, up from about $157 billion in 2017. Thanks to the constant stimulus from the government and remarkable achievements, Turkey’s export volume increased by 7,1% while imports decreased by 4,6% in 2018. Turkey’s most exported products were in automotive, textile and ready-made wear and iron and steel industry with significant numbers in 2018.
Turkey’s 50% of exports, with 84,1 billion dollars, were made to Europe. Following Europe were Asia, North America, and South America countries. Turkey’s top ten export countries were Germany with $15.8 billion, United Kingdom with $11.1 billion, Italy with $9.4 billion, United States with $8.2 billion, Spain with $7.7 billion, Iraq with $7.3 billion, France with $7.2 billion, Netherlands with $4.6 billion, Belgium with $3.9 billion and Romania with $3.9 billion in 2018.
Let’s take a closer look at Turkey’s most exported products:
Automotive
Automotive is the leading industry in Turkey’s exported goods, and it has been #1 for the last 13 years. In 2018, 31.6 billion dollars of exported products were from the automotive sector with thanks to Mercedes-Benz Turk, Ford, Toyota, Oyak Renault, and Bosch Global’s significant investments to their manufactured factories in Turkey. In 2017, the export volume of the automotive industry was $28,5 billion it increased 10,7% since then. The automotive sector exported to a total of 207 different countries, free zones and autonomous regions last year. The EU countries were the largest export destinations for the Turkish automobile industry, reaching $24.6 billion with an increase of 78%.
While Germany with $4.8 billion, Italy with $3.3 billion, France $3.2 billion, United Kingdom $2.9 billion, and Spain $1.8 billion are currently the major export customers of the Turkish automotive industry, while sales to Belgium, Slovenia, Poland, and the United States exceeded the $1-billion threshold. Among the countries with the highest exports, the Netherlands ranked 10th. Exports to this country surged by 19% to $905 million.
Textile and Ready-to-Wear
With a long history of textile manufacturing dating back to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey remains an important country in the global textile and apparel industry. Turkey is the 6th largest supplier in the world and the 3rd largest supplier to the EU at the moment. With being advantageously placed, next to the European market, the country is the biggest textiles manufacturer in continental Europe. In 2018, the Turkish textile and ready-to-wear sector exported 17,6 billion dollars’ worth products. This increase was 3,6% from $17 billion in exports in 2017. Turkey made most exports to the U countries with $5.4 billion. Textile sector exports to Africa, North America, and South America picked up last year, the sector’s exports to Africa are up 13.5% year on year.
Iron and Steel
As Turkey is the world’s 8th-largest iron and steel producer and 10th-biggest exporter, the country made $15,6 billion worth exports in 2018. The sector increased its exports with a remarkable number 36,1% since 2017, in which exports worth $11,4 billion. Turkey exports steel to more than 200 countries and territories. Turkey exported the largest share of steel products to Italy at 27% followed by Spain at 18%, and the United States at 10%. Sales to Belgium and Romania also saw a noteworthy increase in 2018.
If you are interested in investing business in Turkey, you can check Grants and Incentives page to get information about what the Turkish investment incentives program offers to foreign investors.