All of Türkiye’s established names in machinery production, sole and upper leather and chemicals and glues now make the biannual Footwear Component Industry Fair (AYSD) their main window on the world for sales and showing off new products. The 28th AYSD Fair was held in mid-December 2002 in Istanbul and attracted about 420 stand holders and over 14,500 visitors.

The most noteworthy trends were seen in footwear machinery. Imported machinery sales to Türkiye have suffered a major set-back with the introduction of the single European currency. Embracing the euro has raised the price of many European goods to such an extent that one Turkish source thinks that 30 percent of European footwear machinery makers have ceased business.

“Europeans used the single currency to raise prices,” said Omer Saglam of Prestij Makina Malzeme ve Ekipmanlari San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sirketi, a Turkish producer and importer of footwear machinery. His Istanbul firm has the technology and know-how to produce its own automated machinery at a saving of about $2,000 (per machine) over imports. The firm makes 15 of its own items (20 percent of the firm’s over-all production) but aims to have a 50/50 balance between imports and locally-made machines.

Producers say that the impact has been felt most in Italy, where the vast majority of Turkish importers sourced footwear machinery. Local makers can now turn out similar quality machines at more economical prices and have plans to export to embryonic footwear producing countries.

It is encouraging to see the increase in CAD-CAM machines on display, like the Elitron Elicut K1 Elite, imported by Mega Ayakkabi Makina ve Ekipmanlari Ticaret Ltd. Sirketi of Istanbul. This CAD-CAM shoe upper cutting machine manages the work of three manual workers and trims production costs by about 30 percent. Türkiye needs such machines to help raise CAD-CAM usage from its present 30 or 40 percent and come closer to European levels of about 80 percent.

Local firms like Lesmak, Orplast and Star Makina now turn out sole making and high speed direct injection machines. Orplast is the first Turkish firm to engineer a CAD-CAM heel-making machine. What’s more, it needs a practised industrial eye to spot differences between the sleek local product and its imported counterpart.

Aggressive young Turks envisage machinery exports to emerging footwear producers in Russia, the Ukraine, Iran and the Turkic Republics. This would bypass Italian makers and make Türkiye a convenient jumping-off point for peripheral countries who see a future in producing or exporting footwear and are uncowed by the ‘walking power’ of Sino-shoemakers.

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