Several Turkish companies asserted that China's market offers big opportunities both for investment and trade, the Turkish Daily News reported on Monday.

Emre Kavukcu, deputy general manager of Demirdokum, a subsidiary company of the Koc Group, was quoted as saying Demirdokum has launched production in China's Dongguan region, Guangdong Province and has increased its business in China's market.

Kavukcu noted that the company has already gained considerable experience in the market with Demirdoum working in seven regions of China, adding that the Koc Group's trade with China will exceed 150 million US dollars in three or four years.

"We invested in China with the hope of getting a better understanding of Chinese culture. One needs to have patience when first investing in the Chinese market," Kavukcu said.

According to Ridvan Reman, manager of the Sisecam Exports, lots of companies have some prejudices about the Chinese market, deeming it difficult to reach both in terms of distance and marketing.

However, "Chinese demand for imported products is on the upswing and imported products are being allotted greater shares of the all important measure of shelf space," he said.

Reman's company founded the Sisecam Shanghai Trading Company in China's Shanghai free trade area in 2003 and the company's exports of chrome chemicals increased to 9.2 million US dollars in 2004 from 2.6 million dollars in 2000.

Mehmet Karatas, southeast manager of Kibar Foreign Trade, said China will be in a very strong position in the determination of global steel and iron prices by 2010.

"We were first only selling products to China but now we buy products from China to sell in other markets. We transferred 40,000 tons of steel from northern China to Italy. This was welcomed. This is just one example of the opportunity in the Chinese market," Karatas said.

Source: Xinhua