Chemical industry eyes $35 billion in exports

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s chemical industry aims to increase its export revenues by around 15 percent this year compared with 2023 to $35 billion.

The industry’s export revenues amounted to $30.57 billion last year, marking an 8.7 percent decline from 2022.

Global commodity prices fell by 15 percent, which impacted the Turkish chemicals sector’s export revenues, explained Adil Pelister, the president of the Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters’ Association (İKMİB).

“This year, we aim for export revenues of $35 billion, which means a 14 percent to 15 percent increase from 2023,” he said.

Some nine out of the 16 sub-sectors in the chemical industry managed to boost their export revenues last year.

The plastics sector took the lead with $9.1 billion, and the mineral fuels and oils ranked second at $8.3 billion in export revenues.

With a total of $30.6 billion in revenues, the chemical sector was Türkiye’s second-largest exporting industry last year.

Türkiye’s total export revenues rose by 0.6 percent in 2023 from the previous year to a record $255.8 billion. The chemical sector accounted for 13.8 percent of the country’s export revenues.

“The year 2023 was difficult due to the slowdown in global trade, problems with logistics, global inflation and fluctuations in energy prices,” Pelister said.

Türkiye’s chemical industry increased its share in global chemical exports by around 10 percent in the first half of 2023, according to Pelister.