Turkey: Industrial capacity reports up in 2018

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey saw an annual rise of 13.08 percent in the number of industrial capacity reports in 2018, the country's top business body announced Friday.

"As of the end of 2018, there are 73,303 industrial capacity reports which retain validity," said the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).

Official capacity reports -- with a maximum of three years validity from the approval date -- show production, machinery, personnel, technology, infrastructure, and capital figures of facilities in a comprehensive way.

These reports are mainly used to determine industrial production power of the country, to designate economic and strategic policies, and to obtain official registrations in a wide range of fields.

The total number of employees surged 7.85 percent year-on-year to reach over 3.1 million, marking an average of 42.75 people employed in industrial facilities as of the end of 2018.

Official data revealed that 4.53 percent of employees are engineers, 4.6 percent are technicians, 6.52 percent are masters, 72.35 percent are workers and 11.08 percent are administrative personnel.

Among all activity groups, the highest number of capacity reports were prepared in the manufacture of fabricated metal products -- excluding machinery and equipment -- at 10.94 percent.

Fabricated metal products were followed by food products (10.25 percent), machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified (8.81), textile products (7.81), rubber and plastic products (7.11).

The TOBB also said 1,413 companies with foreign capital have issued capacity report in Turkey as of the end of 2018.

"Germany ranked first with 310 industrial plants with foreign capital, followed by the Netherlands (156), France (116), Italy (102) and the U.S. (80)," it added.