After depleting the stocks the countries which Turkey exports mineral to, began to purchase in higher volumes this year. Mineral sector has made 353,3 million dollars mineral exportation to 148 countries in January 2021. İMİB (Istanbul Mineral Exporters’ Assocaition) Chairman Aydın Dincer said “Our 2021 expectation is that there will be an increase in exportation.”
Istanbul Mineral Exporter’S Association (İMİB) Chairman of Board of Directors Aydın Dincer declared the exportation data of the mineral sector which’s the raw material source of all sectors particularly automotive, chemical, steel, energy, technology, agriculture, glass, ceramics, jewelry and textile sectors and has an indirect contribution of up to 40 billion dollars to Turkish economy. According to the information given by Dincer Turkish mineral closed its’ 2020 exportation with 4,27 billion dollars and has realized an exportation of 353,3 million dollars to 148 countries in January 2021. Compared to the same month of the last year, there’s a growth of 3,4 percent in amount base and 7,3 percent in value base.
We sold mostly to China and USA
İMİB Chairman depicted that natural stone is constituting the 145,7 million dollars of the total exportation of 353,3 million dollars in January and said: “41 percent of our January exportation is natural stone exportation while 30 percent of it comes from metal ores, 20 percent from industrial minerals and 5 percent from ferro alliage exportation. The mostly exported products in respective order are marble/calcsinter, processed marble, zinc ores, processed calcsinter and feldspar. And at the top five place of our exportation list of 148 countries there’s China, USA, Bulgaria, Spain and Italy. Compared to January last year we made a growth of 4 percent in Chinese market, 26,16 percent in USA market, 38,84 in Bulgarian market. And the first five countries in our natural stone exportation are China, USA, Israel, India and France.” Dincer noted that the 135 million dollars of the mineral exportation is made to the Far Eastern countries with China among them, 109,6 million dollars of it to European Union countries and 34,9 million dollars of it to Northern America which’s an other region with a developing industry.
High volume purchases began
Dincer quoted the fact that they closed 2020 with 4,27 billion dollars despite the compelling conditions of the pandemic and entered 2021 in a more optimistic mood because of the developments on vaccination and said that works are continuing on deepening in the markets of 148 countries. He added that digital promotion and marketing activities will keep on through the channels constituted by the new normals and country visits will take place virtually. Dincer also listed out the various virtual country visits, boards of trade and physical fair attendances: “We will be organizing virtual boards of trade to Egypt, Jordan and Algeria between 22nd February-4th March, to United Kingdom between 8th-19th March. And we will be organizing the boards of trade to Bangladesh – Taiwan between 29th March – 6th April. And between 12th-16th April we will be paying a visit with a virtual board of trade to Russia, another one of our markets. We will have a physical fair attendance in USA, our leader market in processed natural stone and in Italy where the most prestigious natural stone fair will take place. Other physical fairs we decided to attend and promotion events will be become clear in parallel to the developmenst in vaccination studies. And we will keep on our virtual country visits all the year round.”
Dincer cleared out their 2021 expectastions and said “Risks on economy gradually decreasing and 2021 growth estimates tuning to positive, has had positive effects on our sector. As a sector, we don’t think there’ll be very big downfalls in 2021 in industrial raw materials and natural stone. Because the travels couldn’t be made and selected products couldn’t be purchased to this day due to the pandemic, the countries we export to, began to purchase in higher volumes these times after they depleted the stocks. Hence our expectation in 2021 is that there’ll be an increase in exportation.”
2021 could be a milestone for miners
Dincer also mentioned about the improvement potential of Turkish mineral sector due to its’ uttermost strategical location by means of being an energy and raw material resource and said “Our country is ranked as 10th in World’s mineral diversity ranking. 0,5 percent of the metal ore reserves, 2,5 percent of the industrial raw materials reserves and 2 percent of the coil reserves of the world is in ourt country. Our most important expectation in 2021 is that there’ll be regulations to be made in order to take the sector steps further, speed up the business processes, expend the extent regarding the mineral prospection, extraction and processing procedures. For turkish mining is in a strategical location by means of being a raw material and energy resource and the tenth greatest of the world bey means of reserve and diversity, these are essential to be fulfilled to position it on a more dynamic framework. For this we communicated our expectations to our ministries and all institutions. We begin to have positive feedbacks on these matters. Last week we take the promise of T.R. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that, from the start of this period, our applications for forestery permits shall be concluded at least within three weeks. We have faith that all parties will do their parts in all matters that are important for our sector and for the future of our country. Our exportation may increase more but permission processes should speed up in order to make mining activities and we think that mineral sector businessses and operations need to be conducted with a one stop office. 2021 can be a milestone in this aspect.”
