INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS OF WOODWORKING MACHINERY INDUSTRY IN TURKEY

Turkish Woodworking Machinery (WM) Industry has become an important market in line with the developments in furniture and other forest products industries. In spite of the developments in WM industry of Turkey, the sector is yet to be developed in terms of competitiveness, especially given the fact that the sector still fails to satisfy the domestic demand. WM foreign trade of Turkey changes on an annual basis, and according to recent trade data, export volume reached 1% of global market with 90 million USD and import volume reached 2% of global market with 200 million$. The majority of imported goods are supplied from developed countries such as Germany, Italy and China, whereas developing countries such as Russia, Iraq and Libya purchase most of the exported goods. In recent years the negative trend in the balance of foreign trade declined to 110 million $ levels, resulting in a rapid decline in foreign trade deficit. The aim of the present study was to determine the position and international competitiveness of Turkish WM industry. For this purpose, the definitions as to the competitiveness of the sector and evaluation methodology for international competitiveness were initially provided. 2004-2015 foreign trade data of International Trade Center (ITC) and Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK in Turkish) were used to estimate the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index. Afterwards, other indices for competitiveness, adopted in the literature, were used to determine the international competitiveness of the sector among global markets.