ALREADY one of the top ten destinations for Taiwanese plastics machine makers, Turkey holds further allure, judging from the MOU signed between the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Turkish Plastics Manufacturers Research Development and Educational Foundation (PAGEV) during the recently concluded Taipeiplas show.

The MOU was signed between the organisations to help promote respective events/exhibitions and to build contacts in the respective countries. Jeremy Horng, Executive Director of TAITRA's exhibition department, said, “We expect this agreement to pave the way for further sales of Taiwanese machinery. This is the first time we have had a cooperation of this sort between Taiwan and Turkey.”

Horng also said that Taiwanese machine makers were one of the first to use Turkey as a stepping stone to Middle Eastern countries that have sanctions and thus are unable to import machinery. “The Chinese were not the first ones to use Turkey as a base to enter countries like Iraq,” he added.

Meanwhile, PAGEV Executive Director Mehmet Uysal said that Turkey's plastics industry consists of 6,000 companies and is valued at US$700 million a year. Of this, US$50 million of equipment is sold to the domestic market, with the rest of it exported. On the other hand, Taiwan exports around US$31 million worth of equipment to Turkey in a year.

The Turkish plastics industry is growing at 10-12% a year and this is the attraction for Taiwanese machine makers. “In view of the growth, the industry needs cheaper machines,” said Uysal, adding that the packaging sector is the largest followed by the building/construction, automotive and household sectors.

To a question he was asked on effects of the instability in the Middle East, Uysal replied, “It has had no effect on the plastics sector in Turkey. Even in 2008, during the worldwide crisis, the industry had a growth of 8%.”

However, he said that this year Turkey’s plastics industry had projected 15% growth but due to the conflict in the region, the growth has been reduced to 10% for the first half of 2012.

Founded in 1989, PAGEV is an umbrella group for variousTurkish plastics association and also organises the annual Plast Eurasia Istanbul, which will be held from 29 November-2 December. (PRA)