Another Textile Silicone Oil Example- Fabric Industry in Turkey

A Bazaar in Turkey (Cited from: https://pixabay.com/zh/photos/souk-discount-bazaar-alley-1627045/)

Cover Photo Cited from: https://pixabay.com/zh/photos/hagia-sophia-constantinople-church-1932558/

Last time we have briefly introduced the basic situation of textile industry of Bangladesh and the applications of silicone oil in it. This time, we are going to introduce another nation’s textile and its silicone oil application- Turkey.

Textile Industry in Turkey

Turkey is similar with Bangladesh in this aspect from some degree. Turkey’s textile industry is also one of the nation’s core industries and around one seventh of the nation’s population is working in textile & fabric industry. It is according to the relative report; the textile & clothing industry take around 5.5% of the whole nation’s annual GDP and 17.5% of Turkey’s gross value of industrial output. The technologies applied in Turkey’s textile industry take leading roles in today’s world and Turkey has a series of advanced weave, dyeing and decoration companies. The products like carpets, home textile & furnishing and leathers are the most unique product categories Turkey has.

It is from 2012 to 2016, the data of importations of textile products maintain status quo and importation value of textile products is USD 11.9 billion. The China’s part takes around 25% of the total amount which is USD 2.89 billion.

Fabric accessories are the main products that Turkey imports. The corresponding importation portion is 69%. The main reasons why Turkey imports so many accessories are:

1.      The cost of Turkey’s textile products and labor products are all high, the cost is 3-4 times than China’s;

2.      The capacity of mass production of relative products is weaker than in China;

3.      Turkey has a series of positively encouraging policies on the processing things of enterprises;

4.      For the imported raw materials to Turkey, once the final matured products are exported to any third countries, the manufacturers could get reduction in taxes once they have applied for importation license.

5.      Turkey is in the Europe Free Trade Zone, there is tax free for Turkey’s good to be exported to the European nations who are in the FTA.

The tailoring is the second largest imported good for Turkey for its textile industry. In 2016, the total importation value of tailoring is USD 2.5 billion, and 29% of it is from China.

To be more specific in different products, for home furnishing, it is since the urbanization of Turkey becomes fast, the lifestyle of Turkish is changing fast. There are around 5 hundred thousand people marry annually to make new families. It is due to the size of Turkish families become smaller, the market potential of Turkish furnishing importation is huge. Also, Turkey is a large country for its tourism thus the demand of furnishing for hotels is also large.

For luggage, the importation value of luggage of Turkey in 2016 is USD 0.24 billion, the main importation nation is China for luggage, over half of it is from China.

Another important part is the shoes; the production capacity of making shoes of Turkey is the third largest in Europe- just after Italy and Spain, the main exportation destinations are Russia and Middle East countries. Turkey has a large demand on raw materials of shoes and the relative chemicals like silicone oil. In 2016, the importation value of shoes in Turkey is around USD 0.73 billion.

Silicone Oil in Turkey’s Textile Industry

It is since the textile industry in Turkey is large and diverse; the silicone oil’s demand is relatively high.

To be different from textile industry in Bangladesh, the products produced or processed in Turkey could be divided into more product subcategories. Thus, the needed silicone oil auxiliaries will be more diverse as well.

The needs of silicone oil softeners, lubricants, finishing agents, blocking agents and additives are all needed in Turkey.

The silicone oil lubricant is just used as what is described in the previous article; it is used to provide many excellent properties like high electrical isolation, high heating resistance and some other unique features.

The silicone oil finishing agent could be used for both of fabric and leathers. For fabrics, finishing agents could allow the tailoring to be tight and be shaped permanently. For leathers, the leather could be shaped by finishing agents as well and what is more, the finishing agent could also prevent the leathers from moulds. This is the key feature to ensure the quality of leather shoes.

Silicone oil softeners are also widely used in Turkey’s goods. The softener is mainly applied in the tailoring and to make them soft to make the people who wear it will feel comfortable and satisfied. It will also shape the clothes to the normal ones from some degree as well.

There are also other additives originated from silicone oil to be put during the manufacturing processes of textile & fabric products. Some could improve the manufacturing effectiveness and some could help to avoid some difficulties or damages which may be occurred during the production process.

Exhibitions & Markets for Turkey’s Textile Industry

Turkey’s main textile industry region is in Istanbul, some other regions like Bursa will also have a not small textile industry. In Istanbul, there are many international exhibitions for textile industry, especially for the customers from regions like Eastern Europe and Middle East. Some famous ones are Texworld Istanbul (mainly for fabric accessories and clothing) and EVTEKS. They are usually held in CNR EXPO located in Istanbul which is the Turkey’s biggest exhibition center.

Istanbul also has a lot of textile products markets. The famous ones are Osmanbey, Laleli, Merter and Zeytinbunu. Each of them has different market segments from different places, the mainly sold clothing are also different. For example, Osmanbey is more focusing on attracting designers and procurement clients from Europe and it sell more luxury clothing with a higher price; Laleli is mainly for attracting buyers from Russia.

Summary

To compare with Bangladesgh, Turkey’s textile industry has more diversity but smaller for each subcategory.

So for different nations, they will relatively have different needs on different types of silicone oil auxiliaries.