In the meeting getting ceramics industry and machinery manufacturers together; the earnings of our country’s economy are emphasized by making machinery – the first investment in ceramics industry - domestic and increasing their exportation.
The Development of Domestic Machinery and Technology in Ceramics Industry meeting was made online in 5th January, under the moderatorship of Dunya newspaper and with participations of deputy ministers of Commerce and Industry and Technology. Contributing on the competitiveness of the industry and the development of technology, Deputy Minister of Commerce Riza Tuna Turagay, Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology Hasan Buyukdere, Chairman of MAIB and Deputy Chairman of MAKFED Kutlu Karavelioglu, Chairman of CCSIB and TSF Erdem Cenesiz and Hakan Guldag, Vahap Munyar and Rustu Bozkurt from Dunya newspaper attended the meeting as spokespeople.
Cenesiz giving a speech at the meeting, remarked that Turkey’s machinery and ceramics industries are already painting a proud picture and ceramics exportation have increased despite the pandemic and continued his words: “82 dollars of every 100 dollars of exportation is left to this country. Of course, not all of it is going to the companies. Wish there would be more left to companies but a significant amount of this money is being allocated to our employees, raw material supply, shippers and several sectors of Turkey for it’s a labor-dense industry. We think it’s an important rate. The other 18 percent part which’s not left to Turkey includes energy. When we are able to make machinery – the first investment in ceramics industry – domestic, the total current deficit benefit our country would be earning will be much more bigger. There are many machinery manufacturers already serving our industries. I congratulate each of those companies. We have very successful companies. Our goal is to meet the industry with these companies. Machinery and technologies made domestic will not only be sold to the factories in Turkey and be further exported to other countries. Hence it’s both a substitution policy and also the first step of exportation improvement policy.”
Chairman of Machinery Exporters Association (MAIB) and Deputy Chairman of Turkish Machinery Federation (MAKFED) Kutlu Karavelioglu pointed out that the first meeting in 2005 in Istanbul has brought 21 ceramicists and 10 machinery manufacturers together, 6 billion dollars of machinery was exported that year and the importation was 18 billion dollars. Karavelioglu noted as follows: “Since the first meeting to this day our total importation is 421 billion dollars, our total deficit is 221 billion dollars. Our association was founded in 2002. According to the TUIK data in 2019 our exportation has reached 19 billion dollars. As a product machinery is our second exportation merchandise. We have nearly 30 thousand manufacturers and 33 thousand exporters. Last year went a bit strange. While machinery importation reduces by 12 percent in the world ours have increased by 15 percent. Our yearly deficit will again exceed 10 billion dollars. It seems like we’relosing an important ground. Our prior goal is to have foreign trade surplus but it’s obvious we cannot achieve this by exporting more machinery or exporting more expensive machinery or moving from machinery to plants. Importation must surely be restrained like in our import competitor countries. As the machinery manufacturers, our mission to achieve this goal, is of course big.”
