The Machinery Summit, organized for the 3rd time this year by the Turkish Machinery Federation (MAKFED), brought together the names that shape the Turkish industry. The opening speeches of the summit, hosted by MAKFED, the umbrella organization of 32 sectoral associations representing more than 3 thousand businesses, were made by Technology Industries Confederation President Rada Rodriguez, Turkish Exporters Assembly President Mustafa Gültepe and MAKFED President Adnan Dalgakıran. At the event, where different panels were designed in many focus areas, TÜSİAD President Orhan Turan made evaluations on the industrialists’ vision on Twin Transformation.
In his speech, Mustafa Gültepe, President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, stated that the sector that keeps the wheels turning in the industry in Turkey is machinery and said:
“Türkiye is growing with its manufacturing industry and our manufacturing industry is growing with the machinery sector. In our country, which increased its exports from 50.8 million dollars in 1923 to over 254 billion dollars in 2022, our machinery sector naturally leads our other industrial branches. We are observing rapid progress towards environmentally friendly machines with high energy class, which gives us strength in Green Transformation. The machinery industry has an ecosystem that prioritizes common sense, harmony and cooperation. “The sector has an annual export capacity of 23 billion, and considering that machinery imports are above this, Turkey has a great potential to meet domestic demand.”
TÜSİAD President Orhan Turan, who gave a speech titled A View of the Competitive Value Chain through the Twin Transformation Lens, said:
“The public, non-governmental organizations, business world and academia can all implement a strategy that will ensure a technological leap around the key concept of Twin Transformation, and we can solve global crises with global collaborations. We must develop support policies together that will enable the development of strategic sectors that will reduce the current account deficit and foreign dependency and encourage investments that will produce technology. It is a right step for the 12th Development Plan to include the machinery sector among the priority sectors.
“Understanding the main dynamics of the machinery industry means understanding the direction of all its strategic sectors.”
“The main agenda is the international competitiveness of machinery manufacturing enterprises”
MAKFED President Adnan Dalgakıran, who started his speech by stating that the machinery sector is a very convenient area to closely monitor the transformation in economy, informatics and technology, said:
“The machinery industry, which takes up approximately 30 percent of the global trade in goods reaching 22 trillion dollars annually, is the key to the development and wealth of countries. The founders of our Republic saw the role of the machinery industry as a key sector in industrialization 100 years ago and opened the door to these days. We chose as the main agenda of our Summit, which was held as we opened the door to the new century, how machinery manufacturing enterprises can reach internationally competitive scales. “While our strongest competitors are looking for ways to increase their share in international trade with new tactics, we wanted to discuss how to prepare ourselves for this race.”
Noting that the recent contraction in global goods trade has spurred competitors in the machinery sector and that there is a state of vigilance in aggressive markets, especially China, in order to get a share of the shrinking cake, Dalgakıran said:
“Our domestic manufacturing companies are bearing the brunt of China’s massive export invasion. Turkey, which trades machinery with the most developed countries in the world and exports nearly 70 percent of its machinery to the EU and the USA, pays 1 billion dollars for Chinese machinery every month. There are those who attribute the ability of our Far Eastern competitors to produce at less cost to cheap labor, but there is not a big difference between the minimum wage applied in China and Turkey. There are other differences between the two countries. Since Chinese companies can borrow long-term at 3 percent interest in their country, they can market their products abroad with a maturity of 5-10 years. Chinese machinists use sheet metal that is 25-30 percent more affordable than Turkish machinists. “
The production costs of a gigantic enterprise operating at full efficiency are not the same as those of a business operating below its already low capacity.” Dalgakıran stated that 120 large enterprises operating in the sector have a 40 percent share in machinery exports, and 750 medium-sized enterprises have a 30 percent share, and said:
“We need to grow our companies to increase their competitiveness with global competitors and increase their durability, flexibility and technological depth. The R&D and innovation budgets and branding investments of companies with large differences between their export income average cannot compete. Without finding solutions to these problems, we cannot prevent excess capacities that fuel price competition. We cannot replace large-scale and corporate enterprises with low productivity and low added value without ensuring the proliferation of companies that provide scale adequacy. In the 12th Development Plan, which will shed light on the coming period, the machinery sector has again taken its place among the priority sectors. We will work jointly with institutions on our part to ensure that the measures taken are implemented in a timely manner. I believe that the common will to be formed at the Machinery Summit to expand the production scales of companies will have an increasing effect on our competitiveness in the new century of the Republic.”
Mechanical sector protocol with ITU, 42 Türkiye and Akbank signed
At the Summit, where the potential for university-industry cooperation was also discussed, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Rector Prof. Dr. With the participation of İsmail Koyuncu, the Machinery Industry Technology Development Platform Protocol was signed between ITU and MAKFED. The signing ceremony of the Cooperation Protocol between 42 Turkey and Turkey’s Machinists, which was established under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Technology to train young software developers for our country, was held with the participation of 42 Turkey Country Manager Sertaç Yerlikaya. Akbank Deputy General Manager Çetin Düz took part in the signing ceremony of the protocol regarding the Special Package created by Akbank for the machinery industry.