Türkiye's Exports in April Reached 19.3 Billion Dollars
The automotive sector maintained its top position last month with 2.746 billion dollars. Chemicals followed in second place with 2.503 billion dollars, while ready-made clothing and apparel ranked third with 1.231 billion dollars.
TİM Chairman Gültepe: "Our target is 375 billion dollars in goods and 200 billion dollars in service exports by 2028. To achieve these goals, we need to grow our exports by an average of 5-10% annually. Unfortunately, our labor-intensive sectors have lost competitiveness in recent years. We need to put a stop to this trend as soon as possible. The way forward lies in the rapid implementation of new support and policies."
Türkiye completed April with exports worth 19.3 billion dollars. The total exports for the January-April period reached 82.9 billion dollars.
The April foreign trade data was announced by Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat and Chairman of the Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TİM) Mustafa Gültepe at the İstanbul Foreign Trade Complex in İstanbul.
TİM Chairman Gültepe said in his speech that they felt the negative impact of the long holiday on exports last month. Emphasizing that April was challenging for sectors that have lost competitiveness, Gültepe continued:
"According to the General Trade System (GTS) records, we completed April with a 0.1% increase compared to the same month last year, reaching 19.3 billion dollars in exports. So, we are at par with last year. In the January-April period, we reached 82.9 billion dollars, with a 2.7% increase. According to the work of our Service Exporters Association, we estimate that we will reach approximately 7.9 billion dollars in service exports in April.
IN APRIL, THE EXPORTS OF 16 SECTORS DECLINED
While the exports of 10 sectors increased last month, the exports of 16 sectors declined. In terms of value, the biggest decreases were in the ready-made clothing, jewelry, and iron/non-ferrous metals sectors. The automotive sector maintained its top position with 2.746 billion dollars. The other sectors in the top five were chemicals with 2.503 billion dollars, ready-made clothing with 1.231 billion dollars, steel with 1.208 billion dollars, and electrical-electronics with 1.200 billion dollars. According to TİM data based on the legal headquarters of companies, 51 of our provinces increased their exports last month. The top 5 provinces with the highest exports were İstanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, İzmir, and Ankara. The provinces that saw the highest increase in exports in terms of value were Sakarya, Hatay, and Kocaeli, respectively. Giresun achieved its highest export ever with 50.1 million dollars. Looking at the geographical regions, there was a 13.6% increase in exports in the Black Sea region and a 10% increase in the Mediterranean region last month. In April, 1,068 of our companies exported for the first time. Our new companies contributed 82 million dollars to our exports. Our unit export value decreased to 1.34 dollars. The Euro/dollar parity also had a negative impact on our exports after a long time. The depreciation of the Euro led to a decrease of 177.5 million dollars in our exports last month. While we increased our exports to 96 countries last month, the countries we exported the most to were Germany, the USA, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Iraq.”
EXIMBANK SHOULD RETURN TO ITS PREVIOUS LENDING LIMITS
Mustafa Gültepe, who also discussed current issues, emphasized that access to finance remains among the most important agenda items for exporters. Gültepe recalled the Export Finance Meetings held on April 25 with representatives from Eximbank, İGE A.Ş, and five private banks, stating:
"There was great interest from our exporters in the program. Access to finance continues to be a burning issue. In such an environment, we are saddened by the reduction in Eximbank's lending resources. We expect the credit volume disbursed by Eximbank to return to its previous limits. According to the Medium-Term Plan, we aim for 267 billion dollars in exports this year. Additionally, we aim to reach and surpass 110 billion dollars in service exports. By 2028, our goal is 375 billion dollars in goods and 200 billion dollars in service exports. To achieve these goals, we need to grow our exports by an average of 5-10% annually. Unfortunately, especially our labor-intensive sectors have lost competitiveness in recent years. We need to put a stop to this trend as soon as possible. The way forward lies in the rapid implementation of new support and policies. Furthermore, the increase in the exchange rate parallel to input costs is of great importance. Otherwise, we will increasingly lose our ability to compete with other countries. Yes, we are going through a difficult period. However, despite everything, we are working with the confidence that comes from being a leading country in production. We continue to search for markets near and far to increase our exports. In the first four months of the year, we organized 51 trade and 6 procurement delegations to 36 countries and participated in 123 fairs. Our delegation and fair programs will continue at full speed in the coming months.
LIKE A CYCLIST, WE FALL BEHIND OUR COMPETITORS WHEN WE STOP
However, our efforts and endeavors have a limited effect. As exporters, we are like cyclists constantly pedaling. When we stop, we fall behind our competitors. We urgently need support to avoid completely falling behind in the global competitive race. Due to high input costs, Türkiye has become more expensive than many items in Europe. If conditions continue like this, unfortunately, we will become even more expensive. Therefore, it is imperative that we listen to the expectations of our exporters as soon as possible. I wholeheartedly believe that our economic administration will help us more than ever by making the necessary changes.
Gültepe added that with the support of the economic management, he believes they will achieve their end-of-year targets of 267 billion dollars in goods and 110 billion dollars in service exports.