Plastics sector contribute $13B to economy, ranking second in Europe

The plastics industry contributed $13 billion to the Turkish economy in 2015, according to Turkish Plastics Industry Association (PAGEV) data. Around 6,500 producer firms, most of which are small- or medium-size companies, operate in this sector that provides employment for nearly 250,000 people. With this success in production, the Turkish plastics industry ranked second in Europe for the second consecutive year. It achieved a 2.7 percent share of the global plastics sector, advancing to sixth from seventh in 2014. Goods production in the sector reached 8.6 million tons in 2015, marking a 3.2 percent rise in terms of quantity compared to the previous year. The sector's production stood at $32.9 billion, dropping by 6.6 percent on a value basis because of the impact of the fall in oil prices and fluctuations in euro-dollar parity.

Last year, 3.4 tons of plastic packaging materials were produced, and this group ranked first in total plastic goods production at 8.6 million tons, followed by plastic construction materials at 1.9 million tons. With this output, the plastics industry used 73 percent of its capacity. The consumption of plastic goods in domestic markets increased by 4.1 percent in terms of amount and reached 7.6 million tons last year. The sector's investment in machines and equipment dropped to $839 million with a 3 percent decline.

The plastics industry invested a total of $8.1 billion in machines and equipment, 78 percent of which was provided through imports, between 2013 and 2015. Manufactured goods exports in the sector declined in terms of both amount and value in 2015 compared to the previous year. Amount-based exports dropped by 1.6 percent to 1.58 million tons and value-based exports declined by 12.8 percent to $4.34 billion. The sector carried out the greatest number of manufactured plastic goods exports to Iraq, Germany and the U.K. in 2015.