Turkey's machinery exports rise 17 percent in 9 months, reach $12.4B

Turkey's total machinery exports reached $12.4 billion in January-September period, an exporters' association said Wednesday.

The exports jumped by 17 percent over the same period last year, the Machinery Exporters' Association (MAIB) said in a press release.

The sector exported products mostly to Germany — $1.8 billion in value —, followed by the U.S. and the U.K.

The total machinery exports to the U.S. and the U.K. climbed over 22 percent as of the end of the third quarter, the statement read.

Russia with over $300 million exports was among top Turkish machinery exporting countries, marking an annual 43 percent rise in the nine-month period.

"The rate of exports meeting imports rose to 58.6 percent in our industry," Kutlu Karavelioğlu, chairman of MAIB, said.

Karavelioğlu added that MAIB desired to reach $18-billion machinery export target by the end of the year.

"The reason why the state supports technology-oriented cooperation projects between large enterprises and SMEs is to reduce the dependence of our industry on foreign technology," Karavelioğlu said.

Turkey earned $123.1 billion from overall exports during the first nine months of 2018, according to the Turkish Exporters' Association.