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Potential Areas of Cooperation between West Virginia and the Republic of Turkey
Coal, being one of West Virginia's best prospects, is perhaps the states leading
export commodity to Turkey. With the growing imported coal power plant projects and large local construction market needing more steel from the local steel manufacturers, there is a real potential for an increase
of Turkish imports from West Virginia. The coal industry in West Virginia is currently going through a lot of stress and change. Any opportunity for the expansion of overseas coal sales would be happy news
within the state's industry and the local economy. Turkish steel mills require metallurgical coking coal. Turkey does not have sufficient resources of metallurgical coking coal and imports most of it from
Australia, South Africa, United States and other countries. Additionally, we ascertained that three West Virginia sectors were matched to the Best Prospects in Turkey. These sectors include building products
(such as log houses, panel housing, etc.), auto parts (there is a growing auto parts industry in WV's central and northern regions for a variety of parts), and high technology and information systems
to support Turkey's growing defense industry. The northern region of the state has an abundant number of high tech firms that specialize in serving the systems and software development needs of the US defense industry. In fact, National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC) in Wheeling is responsible, in part, for leading the high tech firms to opportunities for domestic contracts. And as a footnote, West Virginia also has a growing
aviation equipment sector in the northern region that possibly can be of value to Turkey's defense industry needs. Other West Virginia sectors that might be suitable include general industrial
equipment, mining machinery and related equipment (examples of related items include coal cleaning, weighing, batting, and testing equipment), specialty metal products
(such as aluminum, nickel and stainless steel), and industrial chemicals. Turkey imports large volumes of petrochemicals, organic and inorganic chemicals. |
