TURKEY: Technical textiles production increasing

Technical and functional textile markets are gaining extra momentum in Turkey, and are expected to gain more importance over the coming 15-20 years.

Technical textile production and product diversification is increasing in the country, including non-woven fabrics and products, stiffening materials, special felts, filtration materials, products of automotive and packaging industries, military clothes and equipments.

Turkey's technical textile exports, an increasing trend since 2000, reached US$847m in 2006.

Leading export items were flexible intermediate bulk containers of man-made textile materials, tyre cord fabric of high tenacity yarn of nylon, polyesters or viscose rayon, glass fibers and articles and non-wovens. Germany, France, Spain, Italy and UK were the leading export markets for such products.