Ask most international buyers what they associate with Turkish manufacturing and elevators are unlikely to be the first answer. Yet over the past five years Türkiye's elevator sector has exported roughly three times more than it has imported — a trade surplus of around USD 1.2 billion — and the Ministry of Industry and Technology has formally classified elevators as a strategic sector.
For anyone sourcing elevator systems or components, that surplus is more informative than any marketing claim. It tells you something specific: Türkiye is not assembling imported kits and re-badging them. It is manufacturing.
This article sets out what the available data actually says about the Turkish elevator industry, where the figures disagree with each other, and what a buyer should take from them.
According to Cem Bozdağ, president of the Turkish Elevator Industrialists Federation (TASFED), citing Ministry of Trade figures, over a five-year period Türkiye's elevator sector recorded:
Bozdağ added a detail that matters more than the headline: much of that USD 584 million import figure represents complete packages brought in from China by internationally owned companies operating in Türkiye — not inputs that Turkish manufacturers depend on.
Read carefully, that is a statement about industrial depth. A country that assembles elevators imports components: traction machines, control boards, door operators, safety gear. A country that manufactures them exports those same categories. Türkiye's balance sits firmly in the second group.
Here the picture becomes less tidy, and it is worth being precise rather than flattering.
Elevator World, the industry's leading independent publication, placed Türkiye eighth globally in elevator exports in its Elevator Industry Report 2023, with USD 375 million in exports representing roughly 3% of the global total. China led with a 25% share, followed by Italy and Spain among the leading exporters.
Turkish industry sources have cited a higher position. In April 2025, TASFED's president stated that Türkiye shares fifth place with Spain in global elevator export rankings.
Both figures can be reported honestly, and the gap between them is not evidence that someone is wrong. Export rankings in this sector shift substantially depending on:
Notably, the two sources broadly agree on volume. USD 1.77 billion over five years averages roughly USD 354 million per year — close to Elevator World's USD 375 million figure. The disagreement is about position in a table, not about how much Türkiye actually ships.
For a buyer, the volume figure is the useful one. Whether Türkiye is fifth or eighth changes nothing about lead times, certification or price. What matters is that the export base is real and sustained.
The scale of the sector explains how those export volumes are possible. According to Turkish Industrial Registry data, the elevator sector comprises:
That last number is the one worth pausing on. A market with 335 specialist component manufacturers is not a market of assemblers. It means that for most elevator subsystems — traction machines, control boards, cabin doors, guide rails, safety gear, buffers — there are multiple competing Turkish producers, each with their own tooling and engineering.
For a buyer, competition at component level is what makes sourcing viable. It means alternatives if a supplier's lead time slips, and it means pricing that reflects genuine competition rather than a single national champion.
Türkiye is counted among the small group of countries — alongside China, Italy, Spain, Germany and France — that lead global elevator component exports, with Europe as the primary destination market. That distinction between components and complete systems matters when you are deciding what to source.
The categories where Turkish manufacturing depth is most established include:
The pattern is consistent with the trade balance. A country importing USD 117 million a year while exporting USD 354 million is not buying in the difficult parts and adding a badge — it is producing the difficult parts and selling them.
Turkish elevator manufacturing is geographically clustered, which is useful to know when planning factory visits or consolidating shipments.
The practical consequence: a buyer sourcing several component categories can often visit four or five qualified manufacturers within a single region rather than crossing the country.
Turkish elevator exports reach the European Union, the Middle East, the Turkic republics of Central Asia, North Africa, and further afield into East Asia and South America. EU regulatory alignment is a substantial part of why: Turkish manufacturers work to the same EN 81-20 and EN 81-50 safety standards as European producers, and carry CE marking under the Lifts Directive.
That alignment removes the certification friction that often complicates sourcing from outside Europe. A CE-marked, EN 81-20 compliant Turkish traction machine does not require a separate conformity route for an EU project.
The sector's internationalisation goes beyond shipping product. Turkish elevator companies have established more than 150 companies abroad, according to reporting by Dünya newspaper — a sign of firms building local service and distribution capability in their export markets rather than selling purely at arm's length.
Translating industry statistics into procurement decisions, four points follow from the data.
Component depth is the real advantage. The headline export figure is driven substantially by components rather than complete systems. If you are sourcing traction machines, control boards, doors or cabin equipment, you are buying into the strongest part of the sector.
Certification is not the obstacle it might be elsewhere. EN 81-20/50 compliance and CE marking are standard among export-oriented Turkish manufacturers, not exceptional. Ask for the EU type-examination certificate and the issuing notified body number, and verify them — but expect them to exist.
The trade surplus is a due-diligence signal. A sector that exports three times what it imports has domestic engineering capability. That correlates with a manufacturer's ability to handle custom specifications rather than only catalogue items.
Rankings are not a substitute for supplier verification. Whether the country ranks fifth or eighth tells you nothing about whether a specific company will deliver on time. National statistics establish that the sector is credible; they do not establish that any individual supplier is.
The sector-level data is encouraging, but it does not transfer automatically to any single company. A practical verification sequence:
Türkiye's elevator sector exports around USD 350–375 million a year against imports of roughly USD 117 million, sustains 2,669 registered companies and over 31,000 employees, and includes 335 specialist component manufacturers working to European safety standards. Independent industry data places it eighth among global exporters with about 3% of world trade; domestic industry bodies place it higher.
Either way, the underlying position is the same: this is a manufacturing sector with real depth, not an assembly and re-export operation. For buyers, that is the finding that actually affects a sourcing decision.
Browse verified Turkish elevator manufacturers and request quotations directly through the elevator.tr manufacturer directory, or read our buyer's guide to five established Turkish elevator manufacturers.
