PlastEurasia Report
PlastEurasia in Istanbul (27th - 30th November 2008) is the largest plastics and rubber event in Turkey and is becoming one of the most important events for the entire region. PlastEurasia 2008 attracted 30,410 visitors (nearly 4000 more than the previous year) with 1,018 exhibiting companies from 38 countries. PlastEurasia is becoming more of an international show each year, with a 100% increase in the number of international exhibitors over the past 5 years. The largest foreign representation came from China (39 companies), followed Taiwan (31), Italy (17), Germany (17) and the UK (8).
2008 was the second consecutive year that the show featured a British Pavilion, with MSA Engineering, Polymer Training Limited, Beta Lasermike, Listgrove, European Plastics News, Aerogen, Impact Laboratories and TransXL all taking part. The British Companies at the fair saw steady traffic and received some high quality enquiries, with a large number of international visitors coming to the show, particularly from the Middle East.
Morgan Jones, Managing Director of MSA Engineering Ltd commented ‘Following the show we have followed up on enquiries and already have 3 or 4 potential high quality clients and a possible distributor in the region. Most of the enquiries we received were Turkish however we did receive some interesting enquiries from Serbia, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In fact one of our best enquiries was from China who expressed serious interest in our electro fusion wire laying systems’. There was much interest in the British Group Guide, of which 1000 were distributed from the BPF stand at the show, giving information on the plastics industry in the UK and highlighting the British Companies exhibiting. Stephen Hunt, Business Development Manager at the BPF commented ‘This is the second year running that the BPF has co-ordinated the British Pavilion at the show and there is always a great deal of interest in the British exhibitors and in our member comopanies. We were also demonstrating Plastbook, an online network of plastics professional, which went down very well with Turkish visitors’. The United Kingdom are major trade partners with Turkey, with the UK being Turkeys second largest export market accounting for 8.1% of all exports.
PlastEurasia 2008 was the first year with a German Pavilion, with the Turkish Market now playing a massive role in German exporters. Lilli Rudnick of VDMA (the German Association) commented that ‘The German companies consider Turkey as a very important market, it ranks in the top 10 and in the first 10 months of 2008 German exports to have increase considerably compared to the previous period’. The Italian Trade Association ASSOCOMPLAST have been coordinating Italian pavilions at PlastEurasia since the early 90’s and Alberto Colnago of ASSOCOMAPLAST commented ‘In 2007 Turkey was our 8th largest export market accounting for more than €97,000,000 and repressing 3.62% of Italian machinery exports, this compared to €80,411,000 in 2005 and €82,597,000 in 2006.’
Turkish Plastics Industry (2007)
Visitor Numbers PlastEurasia 2001-2008
2008 was the second consecutive year that the show featured a British Pavilion, with MSA Engineering, Polymer Training Limited, Beta Lasermike, Listgrove, European Plastics News, Aerogen, Impact Laboratories and TransXL all taking part. The British Companies at the fair saw steady traffic and received some high quality enquiries, with a large number of international visitors coming to the show, particularly from the Middle East.
Morgan Jones, Managing Director of MSA Engineering Ltd commented ‘Following the show we have followed up on enquiries and already have 3 or 4 potential high quality clients and a possible distributor in the region. Most of the enquiries we received were Turkish however we did receive some interesting enquiries from Serbia, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In fact one of our best enquiries was from China who expressed serious interest in our electro fusion wire laying systems’. There was much interest in the British Group Guide, of which 1000 were distributed from the BPF stand at the show, giving information on the plastics industry in the UK and highlighting the British Companies exhibiting. Stephen Hunt, Business Development Manager at the BPF commented ‘This is the second year running that the BPF has co-ordinated the British Pavilion at the show and there is always a great deal of interest in the British exhibitors and in our member comopanies. We were also demonstrating Plastbook, an online network of plastics professional, which went down very well with Turkish visitors’. The United Kingdom are major trade partners with Turkey, with the UK being Turkeys second largest export market accounting for 8.1% of all exports.
PlastEurasia 2008 was the first year with a German Pavilion, with the Turkish Market now playing a massive role in German exporters. Lilli Rudnick of VDMA (the German Association) commented that ‘The German companies consider Turkey as a very important market, it ranks in the top 10 and in the first 10 months of 2008 German exports to have increase considerably compared to the previous period’. The Italian Trade Association ASSOCOMPLAST have been coordinating Italian pavilions at PlastEurasia since the early 90’s and Alberto Colnago of ASSOCOMAPLAST commented ‘In 2007 Turkey was our 8th largest export market accounting for more than €97,000,000 and repressing 3.62% of Italian machinery exports, this compared to €80,411,000 in 2005 and €82,597,000 in 2006.’
Turkish Plastics Industry (2007)
| Production |
611,000 ton |
| Import | 3,993,000 ton |
| Export |
305,000 ton |
| Consumption | 3,826,000 ton |
| Annual Processing Capacity | 4.9 Million Tonnes |
| Consumption per capital | 60kg |
| Number of Raw Material Companies |
380 |
| Plastics Converters |
3,700 |
| Total Plastics Companies | 6,000 |
| Total Employees |
200,000+ |
Import/Export of Raw Material (ton) (2007)
| Import | Export | |
| PE | 875,000 | 45,000 |
| PP | 1,196,000 | 17,000 |
| PS |
434,000 | 2,900 |
| PVC |
733,000 | 11,000 |
Consumption By Market Sector (2007)
| Construction | 22% |
| Packaging | 40% |
| Electric and Electronics | 10% |
| Agriculture | 6% |
| Transport | 4% |
| Other | 18% |
Source: Italian Statistics Agency / Pagev
The Turkish plastics market is made up of 6,000 companies with over 200,000 employees. The sector is of increasing importance to the Turkish economy and in 2007 accounted for 3% of Turkeys exports, representing the 5th largest industry group.
The Turkish plastics market is now the 5th largest in Europe and is growing at a rate of 15% per annum. In 2007 the plastics processing capacity of Turkey was 5 million tonnes and it is estimated that this will reach 13 million tonnes by 2013. In terms of export plastics goods accounted for $7 billion in 2007, with $3 billion in direct and $4 in indirect exports. The first 10 months of 2008 were highly positive showing a 33% increase in plastics production across Turkey of $3.2bn.
The country however, like much of the rest of the world, is in serious economic and financial crisis. This is starting to effect the plastics industry which in August dropped by 4.1%, and saw a further 5% drop in September – the first time the plastics market has seen 2 consecutive months of decline since records began.
British Group at PlastEurasia
Playing a large part in the growth of the Plastics Industry in Turkey has been the Automotive Industry, with 1,000 automotive component suppliers in Turkey and a production of 1.3million vehicles in 2008 (of which 950,000 will be exported) the area has become a major automotive hub. However the automotive market has been hit hard with estimations that 2009 will see huge drops in car production and significant job losses. All of which will have a significant impact on the plastics industry.
In addition the country has a major trade deficit and currently only produces 20% of the raw material it consumes with nearly 4,000,000 tonnes of raw material being imported per annum. The sector is demanding that Turkey produces more of the chemicals it needs to meet its demands, and there is increasing pressure on the Government to enable this to happen. In terms of plastics machinery, 87% of the machinery it uses are met by imports, with only 97.1% of injection moulding machines being imported. Leading industry players are highlighting the need to enable Turkey to stand on its own and not simply become a subcontractor if it wants to become a significant Exporting nation. A growth strategy based on imports is seen as a dangerous idea in the market and the need to increase local production is paramount.
Turkish companies however are investing heavily in new, high quality machinery and Nanotechnology is seen as a big growth area within the Turkish plastics industry as the need to innovate is high on the agenda.
PAGEV, the Plastics Trade Association are a very powerful body in the market, established in 1989 and representing over 300 plastics companies in Turkey, PAGEV, like the British Plastics Federation are active members of EuPC (the European Plastics Converters Association) and CIPAD (Council of International Plastics Association Directors). The BPF also work closely alongside Pagev on a number of European R&D Projects such as Peptflow.
