Turkey and the Turkish Graphic Arts Market and drupa 2008 (Turkey)

Turkey and the Turkish Graphic Arts Market and drupa 2008
By M. Akif Tatlisu

Turkish printers eagerly await drupa 2008, as it continues to be one of the most important global events for the Turkish printers. In this article, I will try to give brief but explanatory information about Turkey and the Turkish graphic arts market.

TURKEY: THE BIG POWER IN ITS REGION
Turkey is 680 kilometers wide and 1565 kilometers long with a total area of 814.578 km2. The length of its terrestrial borders is 2.573 km, and total coast length is 8.333 kms including the islands. According to the data provided by the State Planning Organization (DPT), its population is 72,9 million and is the 17th most crowded country in the world. Again, according to DPT data, the population of Turkey is estimated to reach 100,8 million by the year 2050. Turkey’s one of the most important qualities is its young population. 12% of the entire population consists of children aged 5-9 and 12% consists of young people of 20-24. These figures show that Turkey will grow in the next 20 years, both in terms of production and consumption.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND PRINTING INDUSTRY BY THE CITIES
According to the latest census figures provided by the State Statistics Organization (2000), Istanbul, Ankara (the capital) and Izmir are the three cities with the most crowded population among 81 cities. Among these, Istanbul has a population of 10.018.735, Ankara 4.007.860 and İzmir 3.370.866. Accordingly, these three cities have the largest number of print houses. Istanbul has been the center of printing since Ottoman Empire, therefore a comparison between the cities would reveal that Istanbul houses the 22% of all the print houses in Turkey. Ankara follows with 14% and Izmir with 10% (matbaa&teknik® magazine special figures). Ankara being the capital city and public print houses being located there, is an important factor in making the city an important printing center.
We can classify the printers in Turkey in two groups, as small and medium scaled printers and big print houses. According to this classification, the printers are again mostly located in the said three big cities. The remaining 64% is not evenly distributed across the country, but rather grouped in certain cities like Bursa, Kayseri, Konya, Gaziantep and Antalya. These cities have some very modern printers specialized in graphic arts.

PRODUCTION AND IMPORT IN TURKEY
Turkish Graphic Arts industry depends on import. To elaborate; the offset branch of the prepress and printing depends completely on import. Turkey has important manufacturers in flexo and postprint area and in terms of consumables, Turkish producers control the half of the market. According to an article published in the official website of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry: “About half of the paper used in Turkey is imported, for which around 700-750 million US dollars is spent every year.”
This trend encouraged all big manufacturers in CtF and CtP and offset printing systems to enter the Turkish market.
The trends in the Turkish graphics arts industry prior to drupa are as follows:

PREPRESS INVESTMENTS IN TURKEY
Turkish printers have made great strides in terms of CtP. Turkish market has also had its fair share of chaos in the technology area. Offset printers who preferred thermal technology in the first CtP systems, today go for violet first. Although CtPs with violet technology are popular, CtCP systems are also getting quite popular. I think that Turkish attendants will focus on chemical-free and CtCP solutions during 2008 and the interest in the thermal technology will increase.

OFFSET INVESTMENTS
Lots of offset press investments have been made in the Turkish market. If we are to examine the investments regardless of the brands, we will see that the number of multi unit sheetfed presses have increased in the past two years. I believe that the market is saturated in that area. However, the sales will still continue, mostly with the upgrading of existing technologies. Furthermore, I believe that Turkish printers will be mostly interested in inline applications, xlarge, machines with perfectors and commercial web in drupa 2008.

POST PRESS INVESTMENTS
Postpress is the most promising area for the suppliers. Printers that have completed their printing machine investments, turn to postpress investments. The rising trend in the Turkish market is the integration within the print house, therefore almost all of the big printers wish to complete their own postpress lines. Indeed, the investments of the last year show that postpress investments surpassed the press investments.

DIGITAL PRESS INVESTMENTS
This is the most rapidly growing area. All the big players in the world market have made significant sales in the Turkish market last year. Short runs and the increasing productivity of the digital prints, made not only medium scaled printers but also the printers that have completed their integration, opt for the digital prints. The increasing interest in digital printing machines is the result of the painstaking efforts of two important manufacturers. I believe that digital printing will be one of the areas that the Turkish printers will be interested in drupa 2008 the most.

INTEREST OF TURKISH PRINTERS IN drupa
The chairman of drupa, Mr. Bolza-Schuenemann said in his interview he gave to our magazine that more than 3 thousand Turkish printers visited the last drupa. This figure is around 30% of the all Turkish printers. (Since we were the tour organizers of drupa 2000 and 2004, and that we exhibited too, I can comfortably assure you that) Almost of all of those visitors were the owners or executives of big printers in Turkey. This figure also provides indication as to the number of integrated print houses. During drupa, the Turkish representatives of the exhibitors are deployed on fair grounds and help Turkish visitors. However, the number of visitors can increase even more with special events (like meetings in Turkish language, special country days etc). Mean while drupa organizer shouldn’t forget to prepare a sign in Turkish (merhaba or hosgeldiniz) for Turkish visitors. Of course there are other factors affecting the number of Turkish visitors.

TURKEY’S BID TO JOIN THE EU AND THE VISA PROBLEM
Turkish public does not think that Turkey will join EU and this is due to the fact that every new day, another EU official makes a statement against the membership of Turkey. The 90% of the graphic arts industry in Turkey depends on import and 80% of that import is made by EU countries. But Turkish printers face the visa problem. We know that many printers cannot visit the fairs due to visa problems. The visa problem cannot be solved with the EU process, but other measures can be taken. We believe that fair organizers can have a significant influence on the governments to take those measures that will facilitate visa procedures.

SUMMARY
Turkish printers are the leaders in technology in their region. Turkish printers are brave in terms of investments and innovations. The manufacturers in Turkey with their own offices in Turkey or who operate through their representatives, make big profits. Compared to the population, it will be seen that the consumption of paper is still not enough. The increase in the consumption of paper will trigger the graphic arts industry. Turkish printers are focused on new technologies and wish to follow up the developments closely. I believe that we will all witness this tendency during drupa 2008.
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M. Akif Tatlısu
Chief Editor of
matbaa&teknik®

About M. Akif Tatlısu
Born in 1965, M. Akif Tatlısu graduated from Printing High School and Marmara University, Department of Printing. Between 1984 – 1990, he has held several positions in prepress and print houses. From 1990 until 1996, he worked in the Printing High School as a teacher and the headmaster. In 1996, he started to publish matbaa&teknik® magazine with the Ihlas Holding. He is currently the chief editor of this magazine and holds the position of graphic arts sector director in İhlas Fuar Hizmetleri A.Ş.

About matbaa&teknik®
matbaa & teknik® is Turkey’s sole specialized printing industry publication. Starting its life in December 1996, the magazine still holds its number one position with its monthly period, bilingual reports, and special technology pages. In addition to being distributed internationally, it has local editions like Ankara matbaa&teknik, İzmir matbaa&teknik, Doğu matbaa&teknik and has an annual circulation of around 120.000.