As one of the world's leading manufacturers of knitted fabrics, Turkey imported 658 circular knitting machines worth US$ 26.4 million in the first 4 months of 2018 – almost three times as many as in the first four months of 2017, according to new government statistics.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, in the January-April period of 2017, Turkey imported just 223 circular knitting machines worth US$ 13 million.

The 658 circular knitting machines imported so far this year came from 8 countries - three European countries and 5 countries in the Far East. A total of 145 machines worth US$ 11.2 million were imported from Germany and 37 machines worth US$ 2.5 million were imported from Italy. Interestingly, a total of 165 circular knitting machines worth around US$ 715,000, were imported from the United Kingdom – these are assumed to be second hand machines.

During the period, most of the machinery imported from the Far East came from China, as would be expected - a total of 188 circular knitting machines worth US$ 6.2 million were imported into the TUIK statistics.

In addition, 24 knitting machines worth US$ 2.7 million were imported from Japan, 65 machines worth US$ 2 million were imported from Taiwan, 19 machines worth US$ 502,000 were imported from Malaysia and 15 machines worth US$ 839,000 were imported from South Korea.