Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at September 12th, 2008

Hurt by the global crisis, the Turkish heavy vehicle industry, which constitutes the backbone of land transportation sales, has declined 7.2 percent during the first seven months of the year.

Production and sales of tow trucks over 16 tons, trailers and four-axle trucks have been hit hard by the global crisis, which started in the United States and then spread to Europe, said Çetin Nuhoğlu, head of Tirsan, one of Europe’s leading firms in truck, trailer, refrigerated semi-trailer and chassis production.

Particularly due to an increase in diesel prices in recent years, Europe’s heavy vehicle market shrunk 25 percent, Nuhoğlu said. “Sales in Turkey declined approximately 30 percent over the period. During the first seven months of this year, sales dropped 7.2 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year. We are on a very bad track. I am very anxious about the future.” (more…)

Posted by meb at September 12th, 2008

Comments by PAUL WOUTERS / Today’s Zaman

If you lived in Holland, Belgium, Germany or France around roughly 20 years ago, Luxembourg probably stood as a fixed destination for a once a year daytrip with the family. While in most European countries the withholding tax stood at 15 percent, most of the financial revenues were paid out tax free in Luxembourg.

Now, 20 years later, in the slipstream of an official Luxembourg trade mission that just headed back home, a seminar on Tuesday at the İstanbul Swissotel called “Luxembourg: A Global Financial Center” revealed what can be done. In the shadow of the enormous pressure of Europe’s big financial centers, tiny Luxembourg not only managed to survive, but also prospered. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 10th, 2008

Furniture and household product retail chain IKEA is continuing to expand in the Turkish market and is hoping to open a branch in Bursa in November, the company said yesterday.

IKEA Turkey released its 2009 catalog to the public during a press briefing yesterday at IKEA’s Bayrampaşa store. The catalogue, constituting an invitation to consumers, contains 3,250 products. Distribution will begin on Sept. 11 in İstanbul, İzmir and Bursa, and the catalogues will be free of charge. The 2009 Ikea catalogue features the campaign slogan “Your home will reflect your lifestyle.”

IKEA, the worldwide Swedish furniture store, is a household name for furniture and bathroom and kitchen accessories. Its furniture is designed to be assembled by the customers themselves in order to lower costs, which are then are returned to customers in the form of lower prices. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 10th, 2008

US government representatives arrived in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, yesterday to participate in talks on natural gas with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Turkmen press has reported.

According to reports the US asked Turkmenistan to share its enormous energy resources with world markets and said the US is ready to provide any technical assistance to Turkmenistan in this process. President Berdimuhamedov noted that Turkmenistan is willing to cooperate with leading energy companies from the US to implement new projects to drill Turkmen oil and natural gas. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 9th, 2008

Preparations for the privatization of Turkey’s national lottery, Milli Piyango, are nearly ready and the tender process is expected to be launched shortly, a senior government source said yesterday.

Another source close to the tender process confirmed the information.

A draft decree on the transfer of the Milli Piyango license has been completed and this will be published in the Official Gazette soon after the Supreme Privatization Board, or ÖYK, gives go-ahead for the tender, one of the sources told Reuters.

Milli Piyango posted sales of YTL 459.8 million ($306.65 million) and YTL 331.8 million net profit last year and its sale is expected to interest several foreign and local bidders. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 9th, 2008

Turkey’s Energy Minister Hilmi Guler called on Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to cooperate with Turkey in energy projects in the Black Sea and make joint energy investments, on Tuesday.

“We will start drilling the Black Sea in 2009, and I am inviting you to cooperate with us in this drilling project,” Guler said during a conference on “Oil and Gas Potential in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan: Energy, Economy and Ecology Cooperation Strategy” in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.

Guler also referred to the Nabucco project, saying the project would be implemented, just as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas projects had. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 9th, 2008

The Turkish Electricity Generation Company (EUAS) will cancel a tender in which two companies bid for rights to construct and operate a coal-fired unit at one of Turkey’s biggest power plants, the Anatolian Agency reported citing the general manager of EUAS on Tuesday.

Park Elektrik and Akfen Insaat-Akfen Enerji entered bids in a tender in late June to build and operate the new coal-fired C unit at the power plant, while Akfen Insaat-Akfen Enerji was the sole bidder for the plant’s D unit. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 9th, 2008

The customs row between Russia and Turkey has hit traders hard in Istanbul’s main textile exporting districts of Laleli, Osmanbey and Merter.

Traders in Istanbul’s Laleli, Osmanbey and Merter districts face tough times due to the customs crisis between Turkey and Russia and expect an urgent solution from both governments, Referans daily reported on Monday.

“If the crisis goes on, exports will decline dramatically. Besides Istanbul, textile producers in several cities, such as Gaziantep, Denizli and Bursa will also see losses,” Referans daily quoted Orhan Altun, chairman of the Laleli Industrialists and Businessmen Association (LASIAD) as saying. (more…)