Chemicals shipments top $7 billion

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s chemicals industry generated a total of $7.4 billion in export revenues in the first three months of 2023.

This corresponded to 12.1 percent of the country’s total export revenues in January-March, which stood at $61.6 billion.

In March alone, the industry’s export revenues amounted to $2.9 billion, while Türkey’s total exports grew by 4.4 percent from a year ago to $23.6 billion.

The reductions in natural gas and electricity prices granted in April are expected to have positive impacts both on costs and exports, said Adil Pelister, the board chair of the Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters’ Association (İKMİB), adding that the chemicals was the second largest exporting industry in the Turkish economy in March.

“We are setting up trade delegations, attending trade fairs to boost exports. The March data showed that those efforts are paying off,” he said.

Chemicals and chemical products sales to Russia increased more than 230 percent year-on-year to $460 million in the first quarter of 2023, while exports to Italy rose by 1.4 percent to $416 million, according to the figures from the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly.

The Netherlands was another top export market with shipments to this country amounting to $395 million. Spain increased its purchases from Turkish chemicals companies by 27.4 percent to $381 million. The industry’s shipments to Germany inched up by 0.2 percent in January-March to $363 million.