A Record Export from the Chemical Sector in April
According to the data of Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters’ Association (İKMİB), the chemical industry achieved a record $3.32 billion export in April. The chemical industry, which rose to the position of the leading sector in March, became the first sector for the second time in a row, as the sector with the highest export volume in April. The sector’s exports grew by 53 percent compared to last year. Total exports in the first four months of this year increased by 45 percent and reached 10.8 billion dollars.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) Adil Pelister evaluated April export numbers of the chemicals industry and said: “As the chemical industry, our export performance continues to increase. We have been the leading sector in exports for two consecutive months. We achieved our new export record on a monthly basis with 3.3 billion dollars in April. While our exports increased by 53 percent in April, our exports in the first four months increased by 45 percent and reached 10.8 billion dollars. In April, we exported mostly mineral fuels, mineral oils and products, plastics and their products, and inorganic chemicals.
The top three countries to which we exported the most were Holland, the USA and the Republic of South Africa. As long as we continue with this performance, we believe that we will easily exceed our end-of-year target of $28 billion. On the other hand, the pressure exerted by the Russia-Ukraine crisis on commodity and energy prices indicates that rising prices will continue in this way for a long time. In addition, global inflation pressure is also an important factor affecting us. Despite these challenging conditions, our exporters are trying to seize opportunities for countries such as the European Union and the USA, who are in search of alternative suppliers.
The fact that our Turkish products meet the demand increase in these target markets is also reflected in our export figures. As İKMİB, we aim to produce high value-added products and raise our companies to a more competitive position with the Chemistry Technology Center (KTM), which we plan to commission by the end of this year. Our target will be to reach the sectorial first place permanently in 2030, to increase our total sectorial exports over 50 billion dollars and our unit kilogram export value to over 1.5 dollars”.
In April, Holland became the highest receiver of exports
The country to which we exported the most in April was Holland. Other countries in the top ten following Holland in April were the USA, the Republic of South Africa, Romania, Italy, Germany, Spain, Iraq, Egypt and England. In April, the highest increase among the top 10 countries was in South Africa with 2044.75 percent.
In April, chemical exports to Holland amounted to 258 million 389 thousand dollars. Compared to the same period last year, it increased by 97.51 percent. The top five product groups exported to Holland in April were “mineral fuels, mineral oils and products”, “organic chemicals”, “plastics and their products”, “inorganic chemicals” and “essential oils, cosmetics and soap”.
The top ten countries that received the highest chemicals exports in January-April 2022 were Holland, Italy, USA, Germany, Romania, Lebanon, Spain, Iraq, Belgium and England, respectively.
“Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products” were the highest exported sub-sector in April
In April, exports of mineral fuels, mineral oils and products in chemical substances and products product groups ranked first in chemical exports with 1 billion 80 million 407 thousand dollars. Plastics and products took the second place with 1 billion 19 million 483 thousand dollars of exports, while inorganic chemicals exports occupied the third place with 278 million 360 thousand dollars. Following ‘inorganic chemicals’, other sectors in the top ten were ‘organic chemicals, ‘rubber, rubber products’, ‘essential oils, cosmetics and soap, ‘pharmaceuticals’, ‘paint, varnish, ink and its products’, ‘Miscellaneous chemical products’ and ‘washing products”.
While the increase in exports in organic chemicals was 147.71 percent in April, the export value was 170.4 million dollars.
