TURKISH PLASTICS INDUSTRY

Turkish plastics Industry makes a mark at the global marketplace with its innovative product designs at cost effective prices. Moreover, the industry has shown a robust growth and proved its resilience against the global downturn. With the exception of 4% growth rate in 2008 due to the global economic crisis, the industry enjoyed an annual average growth rate of 15% since 2002. The Turkish Plastics Industry differentiates itself from the global competition with its ability to adapt quickly to the latest design trends by utilizing modern technologies. State-of-the-art facilities along with supreme engineering expertise pave the way for the Turkish plastics Industry to anchor itself as a key player on the global arena.

Turkish Plastics Industry is composed of more than 6000 companies, most of which are small and medium size enterprises (SME) employing over 200,000 people. Each year, the booming industry adds 20,000 new employees to its workforce. Another advantage of Turkish plastics companies is their fine-tuned production scale enabling agile and flexible operations. The industry manufactures all types of plastic products ranging from traditional to the most advanced such as but not limited to plastic construction and irrigation products, plastic auto parts, plastic table and kitchenware, all plastic parts of electrical and household items, wide range of plastic packaging products and most composite plastic parts.

In terms of processing capacity, Turkey ranks second in synthetic fibers, third in PVC profiles and fifth in overall plastics processing capacity in Europe. The use of plastics is mostly guided by the packaging and construction sectors with market shares of 40 % and 22 % respectively while electric appliances claims third place with 10 %.

In 2008, Turkish Plastics Industry exports demonstrate an upward trend with a USD 3.65 billion in direct exports, USD 0.65 billion of which are raw materials and USD 3 billion in finished-products. The industry manufactures semi-finished products for the OEM industries such as the automotive, household appliance, electric appliances, textiles and footwear, which are the main exporters of embedded plastic semi-finished products. When packaging is included the exports realized by the said industries In terms of finished products and indirect exports exceeded USD 4.5 billion in 2008 Making Turkey a net exporter of finished plastics products. 19 % of total production was exported while 9 % of domestic consumption was met by imported goods in tons in 2008. Firms in this industry are ready to forge strategic partnership possibilities with their American counterparts.