Research on Competitiveness in Technical Textiles: Comparison of Countries Having the Lion’s Share of Technical Textile World Exports and Turkey

After the end of quotas in 2005, Turkey and many other countries confronted fierce competition from countries having cheap labour. Producing technical textile products that require high technology and skilled labour is one way to cope with this competition. The degree of specialisation (comparative cost advantage) and export competitiveness of Turkey in technical textiles is gaining significance. Therefore, this study aims to examine comparatively the level of specialisation and export competitiveness of Turkey and the countries with the lion’s share in world exports of technical textiles in the period 2008-2019. Technical textile products are not coded under a specific category in the HS system, thus Turkey’s technical textile product groups, which are reported by the exporters’ association, were examined in this research. In this context, there are a total of 39 technical textile product groups consisting of 4-digit and 6-digit product groups. In this study, in which the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) method was used, Relative trade advantage (RTA), net export advantage (NEI), and relative export advantage (RXA) analyses were performed for technology classification. Considering the RTA results, the number of product groups in which China, Korea, USA, Turkey, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Vietnam and Mexico gained a competitive advantage is 33, 23, 23, 22, 22, 21, 20, 16, 14, 11 and 10, in sequence. Under the NEI results, which measure the country’s own commercial performance, the number of product groups that China, Korea, Germany, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, USA, France, Vietnam and Mexico specialised in is 38, 22, 22, 22, 22, 19, 18, 17, 15, 11 and 10, respectively. According to the results, Turkey has high positive NEI (close to +1) and RTA values especially in the product groups of 540219 (high tenacity yarn other than textured yarn/sewing thread, of nylon/other polyamides, not put up for retail sale), 540600 (man-made filament yarn (other than sewing thread)), and 630533 (sacks & bags of the kind used for the packing of goods, of polyethylene/polypropylene strip/the like). Turkey specialised in these products above the world average (RTA) and in the export of them from the domestic market (NEI). On the contrary, both NEI (close to -1) and RTA values are negative in the product groups of 540220 (high tenacity yarn other than textured yarn/sewing thread, of polyester.), 6113 (garments, knitted or crocheted, rubberised or impregnated, coated or covered with plastics or other materials), 540211 (tenacity yarn other than textured yarn/sewing thread, of aramid.), and 540310 (high tenacity yarn other than sewing thread, of viscose rayon.). Turkey specialised in these products below the world average and in the import of these products to the domestic market. In the RXA analysis conducted according to the technology classification for technical textile exporting countries, it was determined that other countries except Turkey specialised in R&D-based product groups above the world average and had gained a competitive advantage.