Competency Mapping of Textile and Composite Industries: A Regional-Global Case Study

Abstract

There has been a recent uptick in the demand for technical textiles and other high-value products on international marketplaces. Many nations have shifted their manufacturing focus to these items in the recent decade in an effort to boost their economic standing and compete on a global scale. Using Bursa as an example, this research intends to shed light on the present state of the textile sector in Türkiye and its shift towards technological textiles with higher value additions. This article examines Türkiye's role in the current global trade quantities of products, as well as import-export data. Also covered are the latest developments in the industry as well as the state of the market for technical textiles. Worldwide sales of technical textiles reached around $118 billion, up 3.38 percent from the previous year. With a decline of -12.91 percent from the previous year, Türkiye's exports in 2021 were 2.413 billion dollars. With the exception of a small number of product categories, the Grubel-Lloyd Index analysis of Türkiye's technical textile industry showed that trade within the industry is bidirectional. All technical textile products had an average index value of 0.7968. Based on their intended use, technical textiles are grouped into twelve distinct types. Subcategories of technical textiles such as Mobiltech, Indutech, and Packtech are expected to have the most significant trade products by 2028. Keywordstechnical textiles, market analysis, high-value-added, Grubel-Lloyd Index, Bursa high value-added technical textiles one by one with their six-digit codes (GTİP) defined in the Harmonized System. The backbone of this study is to reveal these markets. The Qualitative Data approach, on the other hand, refers to the blending of insights obtained from 50 deep interviews conducted with key factors such as manufacturers, unit directors, development agencies and academicians operating in the sector for market research, with the numerical data revealed in other approaches. In the deep interviews, various questions were asked to the key actors interviewed, such as how they perceive the future of the technical textiles industry, which technological trends they think will come to the fore, what the manufacturers in Türkiye should aim for in competition with other competitors in the world, and the answers received were interpreted together with numerical data. In addition, the market trends that will reveal which product groups the market is heading towards in technical textiles are emphasized by making use of the analysis reports of international organizations. At the same time, a SWOT analysis [22] has been made in which the strong-weak sides of Türkiye in these areas and the threats and opportunities will be discussed. In accordance with our methodology, this analysis is also evaluated together with the insights obtained from the qualitative data. Finally, the Grubel-Lloyd index [23,24], which measures Türkiye's intra-industry trade balance in technical textiles, was calculated for 6-digit sub-product groups one b...