Protected dollar hits mineral exports

Rüstem Çetinkaya, president of the Istanbul Mineral Exporters Association (İMİB), said that the dollar rate has been counted in the same place for a long time, which has affected both exports and employment in the sector. Stating that the dollar rate must be at least 22 TL, Çetinkaya warned that there will be an increase in layoffs in the first 6 months of the new year. Speaking at the consultation meeting in Eskişehir, Çetinkaya stated that the sector will close this year with $6.5 billion of exports, but that exports will decline in 2023, leading to layoffs and job losses.

Noting that the current exchange rate is putting a lot of pressure on the industry, Çetinkaya said, “Our costs have increased by 20 percent in dollar terms. Fuel and electricity costs skyrocketed. However, we cannot reflect the costs in our prices in order not to lose export markets. At least the dollar rate should be 22 TL to make up for our losses. To achieve profitability, the point where the dollar rate should be is around TL25,” he said.

EVERY MINER DOES NOT REMOVE THE OLIVE

Çetinkaya stated that everyone uses the mine but no one owns it: “As in all sectors, we have good ones and bad ones. Let’s take a look at the bad miners. With the last bill presented in the Cortes Generales it was understood as if all the miners were going to remove the olive. However, that offer was only for coal. Generalization saddens us. Not all miners collect olives. Furthermore, the olives and the mines may be together according to the EIA scientific reports,” he said.

“We will stop imports worth 40,000 million dollars”

IMIB President Rüstem Çetinkaya said that minerals that are not mined in the interior are brought in from abroad through imports. Stating that Turkey imports $40 billion worth of minerals, from fertilizers to gold, from iron and steel to coal, Çetinkaya said: “We can extract a significant part of these mines. We are a big agricultural country, but we import fertilizers,” he said.