Furniture sector of Turkey

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1 Available Online at (c) EJRE published by International Association of Social Science Research - IASSR ISSN: European Journal of Research on Education, 2014, 2(Special Issue 6), European Journal of Research on Education Furniture sector of Turkey Hasan Serin, Muhammet Durgun*, Yunus Şahin Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, Faculty of Forestry, Kahramanmaras 46100, Turkey Abstract Furniture sector in Anatolia has consisted in Mesopotamia and Hittite civilizations which were established in ancient age. However, industrial production of furniture has begun 1970s in Turkey. Establishments which get busy at furniture and wood sector in Turkey are generally in the form of small scaled family-owned business. Managing automation has begun after big establishments participated to furniture sector in 2000s. On the other hand, there was an increase in number of middle and big scaled establishments which produced in word class. At the present time, there are approximately furniture establishments and these employ workers with retail stores. The furniture sector gets busy some regions where have a large amount of market and raw material. These companies take part in some cities which are Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Kayseri, Izmir, Adana. At this study, the present and international trade situation of furniture sector was examined by analyzing documents which were published at various institutions in Turkey. There was exportation nearly 1.81 billion USD at furniture sector in Turkey has made furniture exports to different countries, Iraq, Libya, Germany, Azerbaijan, France, Holland and Russia. In 2012, it has been determined that China (244.9 million $) was the biggest importer and then Italy (79.3 million $) was second importer and Germany (66.9 million $) was the third importer in the world European Journal of Research on Education by IASSR. Keywords: Furniture Sector, Export, Import, Turkey 1. Introduction Furniture can be defined a fixed or portable article (Serin and Andaç, 2009) that provides convenience and comfort at jobs of living, rest, study, eating and keeping some articles (Cındık, et al. 2003; Akyüz, 1998; Cındık et al. 2002). Furniture which gains a place in every field of daily life is one of the most effective products in human life because it is used and needed by whole human, provides the welfare of the individuals and society, serves the social and cultural requirements for life and influences the living quality of people directly. Moreover, furniture affects usableness of the place with its functional value, provides whether the place is beautiful or ugly with its esthetical value and the places that we live or work is warm, nice and colorful. Even though industrialization of furniture making has begun 1970s in Turkey, furniture sector in Anatolia has exhibited traces from Mesopotamia and Hittite civilizations which were established in ancient age (Taner, 2000; Tavşan, 2002; Durmuş, 2005). Although other materials such as metal, plastic, glass etc. have been being started to be used for furniture making in recent years, wooden material still continues its popularity. Easily machinability, easily combinability each other, its high resistance, easily replaceability when it becomes old and its dye absorption properties are main reasons that why wood is more preferred. Increase at urbanization, population and life standard increase furniture demand, so this directly affects furniture sector. In the furniture industry, the production was traditional with low technology, small capital and labor intensive system until recently but by undergoing a transformation, it progresses to be making of more capital and knowledge intensive sector in proportion to previous years. * address: muhammetdurgun@ksu.edu.tr

2 Hasan Serin, Muhammet Durgun & Yunus Şahin In this study, we aim to examine Turkish furniture sector in terms of production, export and import. In the following section, we present our methodology. Next, we present related results and conclude a discussion section. 2. Methodology For this study, we used furniture sector reports from Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey and Middle Black Sea Development Agency. These data provide structure, production, consumption and foreign trade of furniture sector. 3. Results 60 countries carry on a business in the world furniture trade as a basis. World furniture export moves in the same direction with world furniture import. Export increased until economic crisis that emerged at the late of 2008 year, it decreased with the crisis, and then increased again. The values of the world furniture export at 2007 and 2011 were and billion USD with 16% increases, respectively. As to world furniture import, there is 8% increase from 2007 to 2011 as and billion USD, respectively. China USA Italy Germany Poland United Kingdom France Japan Canada Turkey Production Export Import % Figure.1. Leading countries at world furniture production, export and import (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, 2013) The biggest furniture manufacturer of the world is China with 94 billion USD production value. USA with approximately 56.4 billion USD and Italy, called as design center of this sector, with 30 billion USD are the followers of China at production. In addition to, these three countries consist of 48% of total production. EU countries consist of 27% of total production. The furniture production value of seven big economies which involved USA, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, Canada and England is approximately 159 billion USD. At the 2011 world furniture export, 227 countries plied a trade and top five countries exported 58% of total export. China is the biggest exporter with share of 30.9% and Germany, Italy, Poland and USA are other most exporter countries. Turkey is the 21st in the furniture export ranking with share of 1%. At the 2011 world furniture import, 231 countries plied a trade and top five countries imported 47.7% of total import. USA is the biggest importer with share of 30.9% and Germany, France, United Kingdom and Canada are 148

3 Furniture sector of Turkey other most importer countries. These most importer five countries in furniture sector consist of half of total import approximately. Turkey is the 25th in the furniture import ranking with share of 0.7%. Furniture sector has become important knowledge and capital intensive manufacturing subsection with production contribution of 3% country manufacturing industry caused attendance of middle and big sized enterprises. The main reason of this transformation emerged from 1990s is globalization. With the increase of competition at recent years, plants that produce at economy of scale and world standards were established and this sector has reached the position of selling both domestic and also foreign market with the retail stores. Major product groups in furniture sector are paneled furniture, sofa, chair, office furniture, bed, furniture appurtenances and accessories, garden and kitchen furniture. With the increases at urbanization, population and life standard, furniture demand increases as days pass. Furniture demand is affected by not only normal reasons such as changing and wearing but also aesthetic concerns. Further fashion trends play an important role at product replacement. Table.1. Number of establishment and level of employment at Turkey furniture sector (Middle Black Sea Development Agency, 2013) Cities Number of Establishment % Level of Employment % Istanbul Ankara Izmir Bursa Kayseri Antalya Samsun Kocaeli Other Total The firms that are active at the furniture sector spread various cities on country-wide. Istanbul is on the top in terms of number of official registered establishments and level of employment. Ankara and Izmir are the followers of Istanbul in terms of number of official registered establishments. These three cities consist of half of countrywide approximately. According to level of employment, Bursa and Kayseri follows Istanbul as second and third. Likewise, these three cities provide half of employment. Sector representative organizations say that furniture sector has establishments and of employment with retail stores. Table.2. Turkey furniture production, export and import data (1000 USD, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, 2013) Production Export Import According to 2010 Social Security Institution (SSI) data, of total establishments, micro and small sized enterprises consist of 69.2%, middle sized enterprises consist of %18.1, big sized enterprises consist of 12.7%. Many firms that carry on a business at the furniture sector have started furniture manufacture on 1990s. The five firms that have highest level of employment provide job opportunity 1/5 of whole furniture sector employment. It stands out that important firms of sector are active mostly in Kayseri. Further Ikitelli Organized Industrial Zone, MASKO, MODOKO at Istanbul, Inegöl district at Bursa, Sites at Ankara and Karabaglar district at Izmir are other places that furniture manufacturers intensify. 149

4 Hasan Serin, Muhammet Durgun & Yunus Şahin Table.3.Leading countries at Turkey furniture foreign trade(1000 $, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, 2013) Export Import Iraq Libya Germany China Italy Poland Although furniture sector is important in terms of existing production potential, capacity, number of establishment and employment, its export value is low. In 2012, Turkish production, export and import values are 16.3, 1.88 and 0.71 billion USD. The most important countries at export are Iraq, Libya and Germany with values of 388.7, and million USD, respectively. The most important countries at import are China, Italy and Germany with values of 244.9, 79.3 and 66.9 million USD, respectively. 4. Discussion This study sought to examine structure, production, export and import of Turkey furniture sector. Ever-mounting competition at the world markets make more difficult that businesses sustain their life. As it is seen this research, Turkey furniture sector has a position to be able to compete internationally. Significantly, Turkey furniture sector has strengths and opportunities. High employment potential, increase at fair numbers, modern technology that becomes widespread, high diversity on material and product, being given weight to branding studies, production potential and network, being increased at promotion activities and bilateral relations with target markets are important strengths of this sector. In addition to these strengths, incentive support of government for advanced competitiveness, increasing furniture consumption with globalization, increase at branded products, increase at R&D investments made by big sized firms, target of sector for design-oriented growth, increasing automation, being open for improvement of sector are serious opportunities for sector. However, there are some weaknesses and threads of Turkey furniture sector. Scarcity of raw material, high energy and transport costs, being not grown of qualified employee, the lack of design, global and national economic recessions, cheap labor at China and Far East countries and finally big sized companies at China are threats for this sector. Further the lack of qualified employee, a lot of small and medium sized enterprises and family owned companies at the sector, the lack of post purchase service, inadequacy of vocational education and high level of unrecorded trade are weaknesses of this sector. In sum, free market economy model that accepted all the world and increasing international trade tendency have removed the boundaries. Besides, high competition makes difficult to export. So branding and specialization are driving factors of today s conditions and these drivers will carry businesses further with competitive advantage. References Republic of Turkey Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology(2013), Furniture Sector Report (2013/2). Avaliable from: 28 February Middle Black Sea Development Agency(2013), Wood Products and Furniture Sector Report. Avaliable from: 28 February Taner, F. (2000). Küçük ve orta ölçekli mobilya sektörümüz. KOSGEB yayınları, Ankara. Tavşan, F. (2002). İç mekan stillerinin incelenmesinde sistematik bir yaklaşım önerisi. KTÜ Doktora Tezi, Trabzon, 400s. Durmuş, S. (2005). Türkiye'de modern mobilyanın gelişimi. İstanbul Üniversitesi Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İstanbul, 145s. Serin, H., Andaç, T. (2009). Kayseri ili mobilya tüketici tercihleri üzerinde bir araştırma. Bartın Orman Fakültesi Dergisi. 1. Ulusal Batı Karadeniz Ormancılık Kongresi Bildiriler Kitabı, Özel Sayı, ISSN: , Cilt 1, Sayfa: Cındık, H., Akyüz, K.C., Serin, H., Akyüz, İ. (2003). Mobilya sanayi'nin yılları arasındaki ithalat, ihracat, miktarı ve değerlerinin ülkelere bağlı olarak dağılımının analizi. Pazarlama Dünyası, Yıl:17, Sayı:2003-2/Mart-Nisan, İstanbul. 150

5 Furniture sector of Turkey Akyüz, İ. (1998). Mobilya tercihinde tüketici davranışlarının cinsiyet açısından araştırılması (Trabzon ili merkez ilçe örneği). KTÜ Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Trabzon. Cındık, H., Akyüz, İ., Akyüz, K.C., Çabuk, Y., Serin, H. (2002). Mobilya tercihinde tüketici davranışlarının cinsiyet açısından araştırılması. Mobilya Dekorasyon Dergisi, Sayı:48, İstanbul. 151