A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in southeastern Turkey early Monday morning, and 33 large and medium-sized cities were located within 300 kilometers of the epicenter. The nearest was Gaziantep, 40 kilometers away from the epicenter. The death toll in Turkey and Syria exceeded 7,000 as of early Wednesday morning. The earthquake has a significant impact on Turkey's economy and people's lives. As one of Turkey's most important industries, the textile industry is also affected. Turkey's textile industry accounts for nearly one-tenth of its GDP, and it contributes 20% of total employment and 40% of the country's total industrial output, thus its importance is evident. Then is Turkey’s textile industry concentrates in the area of the earthquake? In which regions are Turkey's textile companies mainly located? 

Denizli, Bursa, Tekirdag, Istanbul and Gaziantep (the red circle) are the top five textile production regions in Turkey, most of which are concentrated in the west and northwest Turkey. Gaziantep, the closest to the epicenter of Kahramanmara? (green circle), is the home to nearly 7% of the total textile companies and employment in Turkey. While the number of textile companies and employment in the southeast Turkey accounts for 5% and 10% respectively of the total country. The earthquake will therefore have an impact on the textile industry in Turkey, especially in transportation and production of surrounding enterprises. However, its influence on textile clusters in the west and northwest Turkey is limited. In addition, the quake region also contains cotton planting area. Fortunately, cotton harvest has already completed and the planting for the new year has not started yet, thus it has little impact on cotton supply. In 2022/23, Turkey's cotton output is about 1.06 million tons, ranking fifth in the world. However, the cotton spinning capacity is huge in Turkey, with an annual output of 1.5 million tons of cotton yarn (in 2019). Turkish cotton textile products are competitive in the international market, especially in the European market, thus a large amount of imported cotton is needed for Turkey's textile production.

Besides, Turkey is the world's major textile and apparel production and export region, and the second largest source of textile and apparel import of Europe. Turkey's textile and apparel exports in 2022 reached 34.4 billion US dollars, and its cotton woven fabrics, knitted or crocheted fabrics, floor covering fabrics, tapestries and tablecloths, and home textiles have a strong competitiveness on the global market. Thus, the earthquake will certainly have some influences on Turkey's domestic textile industry, and other impacts will be followed continuously.