Mustafa Tecdelioğlu, the Chairmen of BESİAD, Fasteners Industrialists and Businessmen Association, made assessments on the sector and talked about the activities they do as an association.
Turkey’s place in the Fastener Industry
Turkey’s young industry wants to do more value-added products and gravitates to quality. Although the high labor, energy and other investment costs in the organized industrial zones in our country make it a bit difficult for us to be competitive in the international market. We are among the top 10 countries of the world after the Far East and South America. Turkey is now also producing its own raw materials and wire.
When we assess Turkey’s market size, and parameters of production and import-export safe to say that it is 1 million tons. It is among the top 5 countries in Europe in terms of market size. As for the production volume, I can say that we are in third place in Europe after Germany and Italy.
Turkey’s Fasteners sector is developing rapidly. Some tests on steel could not be done domestically before, so there was a need for a test center. As a joint project of the Steel Exporters Association and Istanbul Development Agency, MATİL A.Ş., one of Turkey’s best internationally approved laboratory was founded. From 2018 until 2021 I have been serving as the chairman of MATIL. In this test center, some tests about our sector are being conducted. All sorts of physical, chemical and metallographic tests are carried out, including but not limited to fatigue and notch tests. Our test devices are state-of-the-art technology and we serve 26 countries around the world, including Germany and Japan.
Assessment of the year 2018
By the end of 2018, Turkey’s exports of fasteners have reached 500 million dollars, with a total of 135 thousand tons. Our indirect exports with the products we supply to many sectors such as automotive, white goods, steel construction, and furniture have exceeded 1 billion dollars.
In 2018, our growth in exports was 29% in value and 21% in amount. In 2018, Germany ranked first as a destination with a value of $182 million, followed by Algeria with 20 million, France and Italy with $16 million and Slovakia with $11 million.
As for the imports, by the end of 2018, we can say that more than 90 thousand tons of fasteners were imported with a value of $515 million. Germany ranked first with the highest import value of 126 million dollars.
Germany is followed by China with $118 million, Italy with $78 million and France and USA with an average of $56 million.
Target Markets
Turkey’s target markets are very wide and currently, we export fasteners to approximately 170 countries in total. However, considering our logistics advantage, the biggest target market for us is European countries. 85% of our current exports are already made to Europe.
World Fasteners Association
In September, we attended the meeting titled “Quality in Fasteners” in Milan based on the invitation of UDIB - Italian Fastener Distributors Association. Apart from me, the presidents of associations of countries such as Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, USA, and Europe were also invited.
My suggestion to establish World Fasteners Association has received positive responses and we agreed in principles. I hope that this union will make a positive contribution to the relations with customers in terms of agreement and cooperation on the issue of “standard”, which is one of the most important problems in our sector. For example, if you have agreed with 50 ppm delivery standard (50 pieces of faulty products in 1 million), your customer can assess your entire order as a claim without considering this range.
The products are being rejected in the same way due to an error in the coating or heat treatment phase. All these tolerance ranges, setting standards and being united as producers will undoubtedly make the sector stronger. The whole world will have to accept these standards.
Sectoral Activities
As BESIAD, we think that we have created awareness in this sector. The members of the board of directors of BESIAD are also in the management of chambers of industry and commerce and in non-governmental organizations. The recognition of our industry is increasing day by day.
By attending Fastener Poland held in Krakow, Poland In October 2018, with 13 firms and 25 people, we once again showed our sector’s strength. As for Fastener Fair Stuttgart, 2019 approximately 60 companies will display their size by participating.
In 2019, we aim to make two UR-GE projects related to our sector. We consider one of these projects as a visit to Hungary-Poland.
