The Turkish shipbuilding industry, which saw exports soar by more than 50 percent to reach $1.2 billion at the end of November, secured sales worth $100 million in the first two weeks of December, Chairman of the Ship and Yacht Exporters Association (GYİB), Başaran Bayrak has said.
Bayrak told the Turkish language daily, Dünya that they were expecting to close 2017 with around $1.4 billion in sales. The industry was on course to overcome the crunch last year when it failed to exceed the $1 billion-threshold.
In comparison, this year, especially in the second half of the year, it reported record growth and achieved the highest increase in exports successively. The industry also saw its share of Turkey's total exports exceed 1 percent for the first time.
Even though the sector suffered a decline in November compared to the same month of the previous year, total exports in the first 11 months of the year increased by 50 percent to hit $1.2 billion, Bayrak said.
"We reached $125 million in exports in November and sales in December were also good," he said and noted that even though they experienced a decline compared to the previous year, they achieved $1.2 billion in exports in 11 months on a year-on-year basis, which corresponds to an increase of about 50 percent compared to 2016. Last year, the industry reached $815 million in exports.
"This year we have been one of the most successful industries. We have reached $86 million in exports by Dec. 14 and hope to close 2017 with a total export figure of $1.4 billion," he said.
Bayrak said that ship-owners selling their second-hand vessels have also been influential in the increase of exports.
"All of the exports are not due to the sales of newly constructed vessels. The export of second-hand vessels is also reflected in export figures," he said. "Some of the sales may not be real exports because there are ship-owners who change flags, and this can be regarded as exports," said Bayrak, adding that about 50 percent of the exports were from manufacturers, while the rest were second-hand vessels.
