Turkish Plastics Market

Turkish Plastics: A Market Growing in Strength

The Turkish plastics industry has demonstrated a substantial growth. With the country’s plastics sector respectably ranked the fourth largest in Europe according to the 2009 Applied Market Information report, Turkey has firmly positioned itself as one of Europe’s most dynamic developing countries.

Last year, 3.5m tonnes of plastics were processed in Turkey placing the country in the top tier of European convertors after Germany, Italy and France. The Turkish plastics industry is one of the youngest and most rapidly developing industries. Just before the economic crisis, between 2002 and 2007, the country reported a 15% annual growth in the plastics industry with a drop to 4% in 2008.

There are some 6,000 polymer processing firms including 113 foreign owned, most of which are SMEs. In total, the sector employs more than 200,000 and generates 20,000 new employment positions each year. In terms of consumption, the country is below the world’s average with about 64kg per capita indicating opportunities for foreign investment (Pagev, 2009).

Due to high demand and low domestic supplies, over 85% of the Turkey’s polymer demand is met by imports. In the cases of PS, ABS and  PET all of the demand is covered by foreign supplies. In case of other materials, import make up a large per cent of consumption, such as PP (90%), PVC (81%) and PE (66%) (AMI, 2010). According to another source, plastics raw materials imports to Turkey in 2009 accounted for 3.794.000 ton with the following materials in the lead: PP at 1.181,000, PE 895,000, PVC 658,000 and EPS/PS 374,000.

The main applications in the industry are the packaging sector including film, bags,food packaging and bottles this covers 40% followed by construction at 25% with windows, pipes, insulation, roof cladding as the main products. Another strong application of polymers is in textiles with a 14% share followed by consumer electronics and appliances at 10%. The Construction industry grew at an average rate of 13% between 2003 and 2008.

The Turkish Automotive Industry also appears to be growing in strength with the leading car manufacturers such as Toyota, Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen operating in the market. Last year the total production reported by the Automotive Manufacturer’s Association - OSD (2009) accounted for nearly 620 thousand units (not including tractors). According to the Turkish Industry and Trade Minister, Nihat Ergun new incentive schemes to boost manufacturing of eco- friendly cars will be introduced. The market forecast forseesTurkey as a future hub of electronic car production as it offers a relatively low cost workforce and a strategically strong location between Europe and Asia  (Business Monitor International).

The plastics machinery sector consists of over 800 companies of which the largest share is moulding eqipment (29%) followed by Packaging machines (12%), Auxuliary equipment (12%) and recycling (6%). 3.1 billion dollars was spent on equipment between 2002 and 2008, with over 630 million USD invested in 2008. 88% of the machinery purchase comes from imports.

There is a general increase in sales of customer electronics such as computers, mobile phones, audio and video as well as gaming products via the network of a fast-growing retail sector. Turkey has a number of international outlets and supermarkets present in the market and the customer electronics sales alone are worth around US$7.3bn (Business Monitor International).

With growing opportunities in the polymer industry, there is scope for UK companies to export directly or co-operate with local distributors and business partners. The industry meets once a year in Istanbul for an international trade fair called PlastEurasia, held between 2nd and 5th December 2010. The show is organised by TÜYAP Fairs in cooperation with PAGEV (Turkish Plastic Industry Association) and attracts over 1000 exhibitors from 42 countries and over 28,000 international visitors.

This year it will be the 20th anniversary of the show and there will be a British Pavilion featuring companies promoting UK products and services located in hall 5, which is the International Hall. The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is looking after the group and also administering UK T&I grants of £1000 for every eligible UK exhibitor. For more information on the trade fair and cost of exhibiting please visit www.bpfevents.co.uk or contact Justyna at the BPF on 0207 457 5001 or [email protected]