Turkey Financial News » Airlines & Automotive

Antitrust board fines carmakers 277.4 million Turkish Liras

meb — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:23:33 +0000

Turkey’s Competition Board has fined 15 Turkish automotive companies a total of 277.4 million Turkish Liras for violating antitrust laws by holding talks on future pricing and their inventories.

Local Ford Otomotiv was sentenced to the highest fine, 68.8 million liras, while Tofaş, the domestic maker of Italian Fiat cars, followed with 47.8 million liras.

Top executives from the producers and sellers continued to defend themselves until a final hearing last week in Ankara.

The board finalized its investigation on 23 companies Tuesday.

One of the main pieces of evidence the board mentioned during the last hearing was an inter-company email from a Nissan executive that asked: “Have you talked with the competitors? What will they do?”

In an earlier response, a Nissan attorney said the writer of the email intended to inform Europe and Japan representatives of Nissan before they left Turkey.

“This is not systemic. It is only about conveying a fresh piece of information,” said the attorney.

Karsan, one of the three bidders for the future taxis of New York City, and Otokar, a vehicle maker also involved in the defense industry, were found not guilty on the charges, along with Borusan, General Motors, Honda, İsotlar Oto, Mazda, and Şahsuvaroğlu, according to the final decision read to parties by Erkan Yardımcı, the vice president of the board.

Yardımcı said contacts on future pricing and sales strategies, stocks and targets were evaluated by the board.

One of the basic accusations was on an alleged meeting among 13 car companies at which a short-term price increase was agreed to by all parties only three days after the end of a temporary lift on Special Consumption Tax, or SCT, in March 2009. The decision said all the accused companies implemented the agreed-upon price increase.

Four companies in 2006 and 15 companies in 2008 met to discuss whether to reflect sharp current exchange rate changes of the lira and the euro in consumer prices, the decision said.

The parties have the right to appeal a higher court.

Ford and Tofaş units declined in Istanbul trading following the announcement of the antitrust board’s decision.

Ford Otomotiv dropped 20 kuruş, or 1.4 percent, to 13.95 liras. Tofa declined 6 kuruş, or 0.7 percent, to 8.66 liras.

Antitrust violation fines (in liras)

Ford Otomotiv: 68.844 mln

Tofaş: 47.803 mln

Doğuş Otomotiv: 49.785 mln

Mais: 26.638 mln

Peugeot: 20.328 mln

Toyota: 16.841 mln

Hyundai Assan: 15.871 mln

Mercedes Benz Türk: 10.452 mln

Baylas Otomotiv: 7.061 mln

Temsa: 5.429 mln

Nissan: 4.481 mln

Çelik Motor: 3.285 mln

Anadolu Araçlar: 268,990

ALJ Otomotiv: 220,220

Mermerler: 107,708

source: hurriyet

Arbil closer than ever to Turkey

meb — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:31:33 +0000

Turkish Airlines has launched direct Istanbul-Arbil flights, the latest sign of the developing relations between Turkey and the Regional Kurdish Administration in northern Iraq. Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek welcomed Iraqi Kurds at a ceremony in Arbil, saying in Kurdish, ‘We have been brothers for a thousand years. No one can destroy this!

Northern Iraq, on what was once one of the most disputed Turkish borders, is closer to Turkey than ever in both economic and political terms. Speaking in Kurdish during a visit Thursday, the Turkish finance minister reiterated the ruling government’s support fro the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Turkey’s national air carrier’s launch of direct flights to Arbil, an Iraqi Kurdish city, on Thursday, added to close political ties between the parties that were cemented by recent visits from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to the region.

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek’s opening speech marked the ceremony in Arbil to celebrate the new line between Turkey and the city.

“I have brought you our prime minister’s greetings,” Şimşek said in Kurdish. “Is it crucial for us for here to develop and live in peace.”

Until a few years ago, it was unthinkable for a Turkish minister to speak in Kurdish in an official capacity.

Şimşek spoke at the Arbil International Airport, a facility built by Turkish Cengiz Construction and opened by Erdoğan two weeks ago. “In recent years, we have been developing our relations with neighboring countries based on a policy of zero-problem and through strong cooperation as well as more investments. Turkish Airlines’ flights to Arbil are a physical manifestation of the existing ties between the hearts of the Turks and Iraqis. Hopefully, flights will make great contributions to trade, investment and cooperation between our peoples.”

Ending his words in Kurdish, Şimşek said, “We have been brothers for a thousand years. No one can destroy this brotherhood.”

Erdoğan, accompanied by several Cabinet ministers, visited Arbil earlier in March, where he met with Masoud Barzani, the head of the Regional Kurdish Administration, and became the first Turkish prime minister to visit the city.

In November, Davutoğlu visited the city in a bid to support the efforts to found a government in Iraq.

Undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Metin Kılcı, Turkish Airlines Chairman Hamdi Topçu and a group of Turkish businesspeople were on the very first Turkish Airlines plane to Arbil.

Under the flight schedule, Turkish Airlines, also known as THY, will fly from Istanbul to Arbil on Tuesday and Saturday and from Erbil to Istanbul on Wednesday and Sunday.
source: hurriyet

China’s Chery to invest $500 mln in Turkey

meb — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:28:22 +0000

Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün on Wednesday said Chinese auto maker Chery expected to establish a factory in Turkey with an initial $500 million investment.
“The firm has expressed a desire to access world markets via Turkey. They have applied to build a production base in Turkey,” Ergün told a meeting at the ongoing Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany. Two executives from Chery had visited the northwestern province of Sakarya in January to acquire land to build an automotive factory. The auto producer had commenced feasibility studies with the Turkish Mermerler Group, Chery’s current distributor in Turkey. They are expected to shortly decide where to establish the factory. Chery plans to produce two of its models in Turkey through cooperation with the Mermerler Group. Exporting its products to 67 countries, Chery also has seven factories in six countries including Russia, Iran, Egypt and Indonesia.
source: Today’s Zaman

Renault to begin producing electric car in Turkey

meb — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Turkish Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün has said Tuesday that French car maker Renault would start producing its Fluence brand in Turkey in 2010.
Speaking to reporters at the 63rd Frankfurt Auto Show, which kicked off on Tuesday, Ergün said in 2011 Renault would begin production of the electric version of this car, noting that this would be a major landmark for the Turkish auto sector.

Commenting on the electric version of the Fluence, Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan, who also attended the auto show, said this would make Turkey a base for electric car production and investment. The two ministers evaluated the latest developments in the Turkish auto sector for members of the press.
Ergün said they aimed at increasing Turkey’s auto production to somewhere between 1.5 to 2 million cars annually, noting that Turkey was emerging as one of the most competitive countries in the world automotive sector. “We have set our target to turn Turkey into a high technology products manufacturing hub in its region, from Europe to the Middle East and Central Asia.” The minister said the government placed heavy emphasis on using better technology than Turkey’s current industrial manufacturing standards and had accelerated efforts to encourage more companies to commence research and development (R&D) studies to this end. “In Turkey some 56 firms have their own R&D centers, and eight of these belong to the automotive industry, while around 12,000 staff members work at these centers. We have a long way to go since Turkey still cannot utilize high technology in our industry at the desired level,” he said.

Ergün said the government followed the latest developments in the automotive industry closely and that his and Çağlayan’s presence at the auto show was a clear indicator of such a fact. Referring to the tax cuts on automotive sales which are due to end in late September, Ergün said they helped boost auto sales in the domestic market. He said they were assessing the contribution of the tax cuts to auto sales, hinting that they might extend the incentive for a few more months. “As of the end of September we will make a new decision. We will decide whether or not to extend the tax cuts and at which rates, based on an evaluation we will make at the Economic Coordination Board [EKK] meeting,” said Ergün.
source: Today’s Zaman

Government considers incentives for old vehicles, officials say

meb — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:48:09 +0000

Following the end of extended tax reductions for motor vehicles on Sept. 30, the government is expecting to keep the lights on at the Turkish automotive industry with a different version of incentives.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, officials from the Finance Ministry said the government could introduce incentives for the replacement of old vehicles with new ones. Having initially introduced tax cuts on motor vehicles on March 16 for a period of three months, the government decided to extend the terms for another three months on June 15. The private consumption tax (ÖTV) on motor vehicles with engines of up to 1,600 cubic centimeters was set at 27 percent, while the tax on commercial vehicles was changed to 3 percent. Extended for a second time, the tax incentives are due to expire at the end of September.

Noting that they have studied examples of incentives for old vehicles in foreign markets, the Finance Ministry officials said the government could consider introducing such incentives in the coming months, expecting to keep the recovery going in the auto industry. Encouraged by recent tax cuts, the Turkish auto sector has enjoyed a remarkable increase in sales.

As one Finance Ministry official put it, incentives for old vehicles are not new in Turkey; they were introduced in 2003. The government introduced an ÖTV reduction in 2003 for people who scrap vehicles older than 20 years to buy a new car. However, the incentives were misused by some auto dealers. “Some of the auto dealers collected most of the old vehicles to benefit from the incentives,” he said. In another similar incentive program, the government decided to reduce the number of aging vehicles on the roads in March of this year.

The incentives aim to boost new vehicle sales and decrease accidents.

The Finance Ministry official said that more than introducing incentives for old vehicles, the government places heavy importance on making necessary legal adjustments. Making mention of studies still under way on the issue the official said the new incentives could cover a variety of applications for motor vehicles of different ages. “We are considering introducing incentives for people who have owned a car for at least the past one year. Also, three different tax cuts for vehicles aged 10, 15 and 20 years are on the table.” The officials also said incentives for old vehicles could be made permanent.

The Economic Coordination Council is expected to discuss the new program in its meeting at the end of this month. The Cabinet will have the final say on the issue.
source: Today’s Zaman

Turkish Airlines to purchase five new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft

meb — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:10:20 +0000

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) will purchase five new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, the company said in a statement issued to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The aircraft will be delivered one a month starting from October 2010 through to February 2011, the company said.

THY already has three Boeing 777-300ER planes in its fleet. The aircraft were leased from Indian Jet Airways last year for THY’s long-haul flights.

Last month, a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed short of the runway at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport, killing nine passengers and crew. Dutch investigators say the plane crashed because a false reading from a faulty altimeter.
source: Hurriyet daily news

Turkish automakers’ stocks show sharp rise as tax cuts take effect

meb — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:35:30 +0000

Turkish carmakers, including Tofas Turk, a joint venture between Italy’s Fiat and local group Koc and commercial vehicle maker Karsan, gained in Istanbul trading as the new stimulus package, including tax cuts on new vehicles, takes affect on Monday.

Tofas advanced the most in nine weeks, adding more than 5 percent in the first trading session later lost its early gains and closed 1.5 percent, while Karsan gained the most in four months, up nearly 14 percent.

Dogus Otomotiv Servis Ticaret AS, which sells Volkswagen AG cars in Turkey, also rose for a fifth day, climbing nearly 3 percent.

The Turkish government’s new financial package, aimed at curbing the impacts of the global financial crisis, came into effect with its publication in the Official Gazette Monday. The $3.2 billion package reduces tax rates in the automotive, white goods and housing sectors for three months to provide impetus to the sluggish economy. This is the fourth financial package prepared by the government since mid-2008.

The package lowers private consumption tax to 18 percent from the current 37 percent on vehicles under 1600cc. It also reduces private consumption tax to 54 percent from 60 percent on cars between 1600cc and 2000cc, and to 80 percent from 84 percent on vehicles over 2000cc. Tax on light commercial vehicles will be calculated at 1 percent instead of 10 percent

Official data released recently reveals that Turkey’s economy has started to feel the severe impacts of the global recession deeper as both domestic and foreign demand shows a drastic decline, prompting a sharp fall in economic activity.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Turkey’s once booming economy to shrink 1.5 percent in 2009. The government, who until recently retained an official 4 percent growth target, said the growth target would be revised.

VAT CUTS
The package also cuts the value added tax (VAT) taken from the sale of new dwellings. The new rate will be 8 percent for three months instead of 18 percent for properties over 150 meters square.

In a previous package, approved by the Turkish Parliament last month, the government was empowered to reduce some corporate tax on investments, and also cut taxes on textiles and clothing manufacturers if they move their plants to certain cities.
source: Hurriyet daily news

Crisis-hit auto industry sees record increase in unemployment

meb — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:18:55 +0000

The unemployment rate in Bursa, Turkey’s car manufacturing hub, has reached a new high, with 13,773 losing their jobs in just the first two months of 2009.

Several major car manufacturers and auto parts producers, such as Tofaş, Oyak-Renault and Bosch, operate in Bursa and export around 80 percent of their goods. The Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions’ (Türk-İş) representative in Bursa, Mehmet Kanca, said Tuesday that the increasing unemployment in the city is “worrisome,” adding: “In the final quarter of 2008, the crisis really started to sink its teeth into Turkish markets, in particular. Around 56,700 employees lost their jobs in Bursa, and only 7,815 new employees were hired that whole year.”

Kanca noted that in January and February an average of 265 people lost their jobs daily. “We are worried about the current developments. Both employers and the government should take it seriously; this is not only a financial issue but also a social problem,” he said, citing a recent increase in crime, which he attributed to people’s general disappointment with the economy.

Underscoring that both employers and the government should take responsibility, Kanca said he fears that the number of employees laid off in Bursa will increase in the coming months if the appropriate people don’t react in time. “The employers should take measures, seeking opportunities to enter new export markets in order to retain their workers, and the government should take the necessary steps to slow unemployment as soon as possible,” he said.

He pointed out that the majority of dismissed workers were experienced and qualified and that their termination was a serious loss for both the individuals who had invested their time in developing specialized skills and the companies which had trained them. “It takes a long time and a lot of money to train new personnel. The factories should change the present conditions before it is too late. In the future, when the markets recover and things get better, the factories will have to recruit new people,” he stated.

The car factories in Bursa depend mainly on exports, and due to shrinking demand in global markets they had no choice but to lay off employees as well as to cut production.

Turkish carmaker Tofaş, a joint venture between Italian-owned Fiat and Turkey’s Koç Holding, recently halted auto production due to shrinkage in the auto market, while OYAK-Renault and Bosch also announced cuts in production in response to falling demand.
source: Today’s Zaman

Peugeot signals interest in investing in Turkey

meb — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:37:08 +0000

Jean-Philippe Collin, the CEO of French automotive giant Peugeot, has announced that the company is preparing to invest in Turkey as part of a new project. Speaking at the Geneva Auto Fair on Wednesday, Collin said they were planning to manufacture a new car model and had already started conducting research and development.

“We plan to invest in Turkey for a new compact sedan model. There are some problems in financing the project, and we will accelerate our studies as soon as we find enough money,” he said.

Also, Peugeot Turkey head Jean Pierre Vieux said they were determined to carry out the project that Collin described and that Turkey was close to being chosen as the destination for the manufacture of the new Peugeot model.

Meanwhile, Alfredo Altavilla, the head of auto business development at Italian auto manufacturer Fiat, said they had achieved great success in Turkey with their partner Tofaş, a joint venture between Fiat and Turkey’s Koç Holding, having taken the right steps at the right time. “If we can feel at ease today amid the crisis, this is entirely because of decisions we made at the right time,” Altavilla said, adding that Turkey has become a prominent production base for Fiat and that their relationship with Tofaş was good.
source: Today’s Zaman

THY launching Eskişehir-Brussels route

meb — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:38:47 +0000

Turkish Airlines (THY), Turkey’s national air carrier, will initiate flights between the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir and the Belgian capital of Brussels, Turkey’s Civil Aviation Directorate said on Tuesday.

Flights will begin between the two cities on March 2. THY will fly from Eskişehir to Brussels on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and from Brussels to Eskişehir on Mondays and Fridays. Europe’s seventh largest airline in terms of passenger numbers, THY was recently ranked third among Europe’s quickest growing airlines with an outstanding performance in 2008.
source: Today’s Zaman

Five companies to invest in Turkey’s Izmir, to create 3,000 new jobs

meb — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:19:40 +0000

Five companies, including U.S. auto parts giant Gates, Turkish-Dutch joint venture Cappadocia Textile and Italian automotive electronics giant Eldor have announced plans to build plants in Turkey’s Aegean province of Izmir before the end of 2010.

The new investments are expected to create 3,000 new job opportunities, the Anatolian Agency reported.

Turkey has started to receive offers of major investments after tax incentives were resumed and promotional activities took place overseas, the president of the Executive Board of the Aegean Free Zone Development and Operating Company (ESBAS), Kaya Tuncer, told to the agency.

The number of factory closures and production suspension announcements in various sectors in Turkey, particularly the leading automotive and textile sectors, has increased as the affects of the global financial crisis started to bite hard into the country’s economy.

Turkey’s economy, which expanded nearly 7 percent annually on average between 2002 and 2007, showed growth of just 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, and is expected to contract in the fourth quarter due to a sharp decline in both exports and domestic demand.

There are currently around 300 companies, 75 of them foreign, operating in Izmir’s free zone providing employment to 14,500 people, realizing an annual trade volume of $3.8 billion.

“We expect more investments in the next two years,” Tuncer was quoted as saying.

Izmir is an attractive center for investment with its well educated human resources, ease of transportation and effective infrastructure, Tuncer added.

Turkey’s estimated unemployment rate also rose to 12.3 percent in October-December in 2008 from the same period of the previous year, increasing by 645,000 to 2.995 million in the same period.
source: Hurriyet daily news

Istanbul Atatürk Airport records highest increase in flights

meb — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:46:16 +0000

İstanbul Atatürk Airport saw the highest increase in air traffic in Europe in 2008, according to a recent report prepared by Eurocontrol, the European organization for the safety of air navigation. Becoming the 10th busiest airport in Europe, air traffic at the İstanbul airport increased by 5 percent in 2008 over the previous year.

“İstanbul Atatürk Airport is also scheduled to grow rapidly over the coming years. The combination of this growth and the continuing strength of growth trends in Turkey, in particular the growth of tourism, mean that around 2010, Istanbul will join the limited number of airports where capacity is restricting growth,” the report stated.

On the other hand, there was a 5 percent decline in air traffic of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, currently the busiest airport in Europe. Frankfurt and London Heathrow, the second and third busiest airports, respectively, saw a 3 percent decline in air traffic in 2008 over 2007. On the list of busiest flight routes in Europe, İstanbul-İzmir ranked ninth in 2008.
source: Today’s Zaman