Turkey: Machinery exports reach over $1.3B in January

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's machinery exports totaled over $1.3 billion in the first month of 2019, an exporters' association said Tuesday.

The sector's exports jumped by 12 percent over the same period last year, the Machinery Exporters' Association (MAIB) said in a press release.

Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Italy, and France were the main destinations for exports in January, the press release read.

Kutlu Karaveliogu, the chairman of the MAIB, said January figures support the machinery export target of $20 billion for 2019.

"Turkish machinery industry is a well-accepted sector in the developing countries' markets with its high-technology substructure," he added.

"We aim to raise the market diversity of the Turkish machinery sector," he noted.

The MAIB noted that Turkey's machinery exports were $17.1 billion in 2018.

Export-to-import ratio in the machinery sector in 2018 was 64 percent.

Turkey earned $168.02 billion from overall exports in 2018, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute data.