Istanbul firms export nearly $34.8B in goods in first six months of this year

Companies in Istanbul exported nearly $34.8-billion worth of products all around the world in the first six months of this year, according to the Turkish Exporters' Assembly's (TİM) data.

The products from 27 different sectors such as automotive, jewelry, ready-to-wear and apparel, made up 43.4 percent of all of Turkey's exports, which stood at $80.2 billion in the first six months of this year, up 1.2 percentage points from 42.2 percent the previous year.

The total of the products exported reached $34.79 billion, an increase of 15.3 percent compared to $30.16 billion in the period between January and June 2017.

According to the data, ready-to-wear and apparel lead the sector with 18 percent of the exports, totaling $6.47 billion, up 7.6 percent year-on-year. The automotive sector came in the second place with $4.02 billion, followed closely by steel exports with $3.94 billion.

The other sectors were as follows:

Chemicals and chemical products with $3.8 billion, electric-electronic with $2.9 billion, ferrous and non-ferrous metals with $2.2 billion, textiles with $1.8 billion, jewelry with $1.5 billion, machinery with $1.2 billion and grain-legumes with $1 billion.Companies in Istanbul, which are playing an important role in the country's economy, saw the biggest increase in exports in the olive and olive oil sectors in the first half of the year.

Exports of olive and olive oil from Istanbul rose by 91.6 percent to $49.1 million in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2017, indicating that the sector's export volume almost doubled.

On the other hand, the automotive sector enjoyed the largest growth in terms of volume with a $1.2 billion increase to $4.02 billion from last year's $2.8 billion.

The data showed that Germany received the most exports from Turkey with $3.7 billion, an increase of 16.9 percent compared to last year. The U.K. took second place with $2.5 billion and Italy came in third with $1.9 billion.

Other recipients of Turkish exports were Spain with $1.8 billion, the U.S. with $1.3 billion, Israel and the Netherlands with $1.1 billion each and France with $1 billion.

Moreover, Italy was the country that saw the highest increase in exports on a quantity basis from Istanbul with $578.5 million, followed by Germany with $539.6 million, the U.K. with $483.8 million and Spain with $463.3 million.