Türkiye fifth largest exporter of construction materials

ISTANBUL

Türkiye was the fifth largest exporter of construction materials in 2021 in the world, advancing four places in the global ranking from the previous year, according to a business group.

The industry’s export revenues amounted to $30.8 billion in 2021, increasing by a strong 45.7 percent from 2020, showed a latest report by the Construction Materials Producers’ Association (İMSAD).

Israel was the largest market for local exporters, followed by the U.S. and the U.K.

The country increased its share in the global construction materials exports to 2.86 percent, said the report, adding that in terms of volume, the industry’s exports grew by 8.2 percent in 2021 to 64.79 million tons and imports rose by 14.1 percent to 3.03 million tons.

Imports of construction materials, on the other hand, amounted to $8.6 billion, making Türkiye the 35th largest importing country in the world.

In 2021, the country’s construction materials production grew 19.6 percent from the previous year, driven by export demand, while the local market expanded 39.5 percent and its size reached 569 billion Turkish Liras.

“Global inflation and commodity prices, uncertainties in the local economy as well as the supply-demand imbalance in the real estate sector are the challenges that our industry is facing,” said Tayfun Küçükoğlu, board chair of İMSAD.

The business association said in its monthly report that the pace of production growth in the construction materials industry slowed from 4.8 percent in March to 2.8 percent in April. In the first four months of 2022, the sector’s output grew by 4.2 percent from a year ago.

The sector’s exports increased by 29.3 percent on an annual basis in April to stand at $3.26 billion, which marked the second highest monthly figure on record.