Turkey’s shipyards eye new markets as ship, yacht exports decline

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

Turkish shipyards have focused on finding new export markets as the country’s ship and yacht exports declined due to the problems in neighboring hot markets, according to sector representatives, as reported by daily Dünya. 

The country’s boat and yacht exports declined by 13.5 percent in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period of 2014, according to data from the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM). 

While the sector made around $685 million worth of exports in the first seven months of 2014, this figure dropped to $592 million in the same period this year, according to official data. The sector players’ previous year-end target was $1.5 billion, but they now said the real figure is expected to be 5-10 percent below the pre-defined target. 

“We have needed to exit from the North African markets; mainly due to Turkey’s deteriorating ties with several countries in the region … We could not do business with our Egyptian counterparts. They do not want to give a role to Turkish shipyards in big projects. The same trend is also becoming the case in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia,” said the head of the Ship and Yacht Exporters’ Association (GYİB), Başaran Bayrak.
 
Bayrak added that the plunge in oil prices has also played a big role in the decreasing exports as this trend hit Turkey’s largest export markets for ships and yachts, such as Norway. 

He added that the local sector players have now focused on finding new alternative markets to minimize their losses. 

“Our largest market is still Europe so one of our priorities to diversify our product base and to concentrate on more niche products in this market…We are also doing investigative research to understand whether we can be successful in North American markets as well as Russia,” Bayrak said.