Turkish exporters enjoy increase in orders from Europe
Posted by meb at November 24th, 2008
As European importers feel the effects of the global financial crisis, they have decided to give up large stocks and order goods in smaller quantities. To do this, they are increasingly turning to Turkish exporters.
European companies’ profits have declined as their expenditures have increased. Before the crisis, importers ordered huge quantities of goods from China and other Far Eastern countries. Now that this trend has changed, conditions have started to benefit Turkish exporters.
A decline in auto, iron and steel exports triggered a slowdown in the Turkish economy. But the increase in orders by European countries has eased the burden on some Turkish exporters, especially those in the electronics, garment and food sectors.
Aegean Garment Exporters’ Union (EHKİB) President Jak Eskinazi said the orders from Europe started to increase in October. He predicted that the increase in exports will continue in December and January. Eskinazi said the companies that were affected by the crisis decided to give up buying big quantities because of the risk and that a significant part of the European orders turned toward Turkey from China in the past two months.
“The European customers order small amounts of goods that they can put in a store and sell in a short time rather than ordering huge amounts and keeping stocks,” he said. “Once they sell the whole thing, they order another small part, and in this way, risk is minimized.”
Mustafa Türkmenoğlu, head of the Aegean Union of Exporters (EİB), said Turkey is meeting Europe’s demand in agricultural products more than before. He noted that the European companies choose to buy goods from Turkey rather than faraway countries, underlining that there was a marked increase in Turkey’s agriculture exports.
Jak Galiko, chairman of the Aegean Leather and Leather Articles Exporters Union, said it was important to stay calm during the crisis, which has had both negative and positive effects on the Turkish economy. He stated that imports declined before exports in Turkey. He noted that most of the Turkish trucks carrying goods to Europe returned empty and this fact indicated that imports were declining. This will decrease Turkey’s current account deficit as well, he added.
“The new orders may not compensate for the losses to a great extent; however, it will prevent exports from declining further,” he said. “Since oil prices continue to fall, there will not be a big current account deficit.” The Turkish leather sector was in good shape despite negative developments, he said, adding that the government had taken an important step by transferring $1 billion to Eximbank, a state-controlled bank established to support exports.
Turkey remains mostly immune to crisis, US official says
Turkey has managed to avoid the direct adverse effects of the global financial crisis and is bothered only by small indirect effects, an official at the US Embassy in Turkey has said.
According to Dale Eppler, economic counselor for the US Embassy, Turkey’s only problem resulting from the crisis will be a slowdown in exports because of the recession in Turkey’s major export markets, particularly Europe. “In my opinion, there is no other apparent problem,” he said.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Eppler said the global crisis originated from problems in the US mortgage market but that it soon spread to financial institutions, giant insurance companies and finally to non-financial sectors.
Eppler said the world was in an ambiguous and chaotic state and that it was difficult to estimate where the crisis was heading. “However, Turkey is the only country among the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation] members that was not seriously affected by the crisis,” he said.
source: Today’s Zaman
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