Turkey Financial News

Sales of passengers cars and light commercial vehicles in Turkey shrank by 11.2 percent year-on-year in July to 42,156 units, the Automotive Distributors’ Association said on Thursday.

Turkish automotive sales drop 11.2 pct in July.

Passenger car sales fell 9.6 percent and light commercial vehicle sales dropped 13.6 percent during July.

In the first seven months of the year, total industry sales rose 8.7 percent to 305,206 units, sustaining strong growth in the sector which has made it a key element of Turkey’s industry and export base in recent years. (more…)

TAV Havalimanları Holding, the operator of Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, said it plans to bid to operate Latvia’s Riga airport. The Istanbul-based company created a unit with Latvian construction firm SIA Skonto Buve and applied to take part in the tender, according to a filing with the bourse yesterday.

Meanwhile, national carrier Turkish Airlines, or THY, denied a report in Sabah newspaper that it bid for Austrian Airlines Group. (more…)

Turkey saw a 31.8 percent increase in the production of vehicles in the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period last year.

According to a statement released by the Automotive Industry Association (OSD) yesterday, 708,962 vehicles were produced between January and June, while 537,955 had been produced in the same period last year.

A total of 113,168 automobiles were produced last month, indicating a 1.6 percent decrease compared with the same month last year. Total production, however, increased by 12.9 percent in the first six months of the year over the same period last year. (more…)

Volkswagen, the world’s fifth-largest automotive producer, may invest more than 1 billion euros within the next few years to start production in Turkey, said the chairman of Doğuş Otomotiv, VW’s distributor in Turkey.

Volkswagen will come to Turkey sooner or later, said Aclan Acar, who met with various newspapers’ economy desk chiefs last Friday just before the opening of the Doğuş Meiller Damper Factory. Doğuş Holding Chairman Ferit Şahenk was also present at the event to comment further on the group’s investment plans. (more…)

A new report has revealed that Turkey’s exports of motor vehicles to Russia grew by 116 percent to $697.6 million in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year.The report from the Automotive and Sub-Industry Products Exporters’ Union (UTAYSİB) noted that total exports from the automotive sector increased by 46.14 percent to $11.3 billion between Jan. 1 and May 31.

Turkey exports motor vehicles and spare parts to a number of countries in Europe, Central Asia, North America and Africa. Germany, France, Italy and Britain last year topped the list of countries importing motor vehicles and spare parts from Turkey. (more…)

Despite its high performance, especially in exports, Turkey’s automotive sector is unsettled about the debate on the added value the sector creates.

Responding to claims that the sector is overly dependent on imported goods, representatives of the sector highlighted automotive’s successes yesterday.

“Some say the automotive sector creates 10 percent added value, but this is a miscalculation. If it were true, we would not be able to compete in the global market,” said Erkut Özerman, chairman of Uludağ Automotive And Sub Industry Products Exporters’ Union (UTAYSİB) at the press meeting by the Automotive Industry Promotion Committee (OETK) in Istanbul. (more…)

The rapidly growing Turkish automotive industry will need an additional 100,000 workers in the short term, 500,000 workers in the long term and 50,000 skilled workers in the near term, the head of the Association of Automotive Parts and Components Manufacturers (TAYSAD) has said.

In an interview with the Anatolia news agency yesterday, TAYSAD Chairman Ömer Burhanoğlu said the planned investments in the sector include $3.5 billion for capacity building, $2 billion for technological upgrades and $3.5 billion for new models. With these investments Burhanoğlu said investors in Turkey’s auto sector aim to increase annual auto production to 2 million by 2013 and to make $40 billion worth of exports. (more…)

Turkey is growing as an export base for automotive manufacturers and auto-related sub-industries because of its strategic market location, industry incentives, low cost, abundance of skilled labor, customs union with the EU and high technology and know-how.

Emerging from a financial crisis in 2001, Turkey has successfully transformed itself into a highly competitive economy, attracting a sizable portion of foreign investment in the auto sector. Today, industrial goods account for more than 90 percent of Turkey’s exports, with automobiles the most-sold item in this category. Seeing Turkey as a gateway to European and Asian markets, the world’s leading auto manufacturers are increasingly opting to use Turkey as a base of operations to gain access to wider markets while expanding their sales figures in the domestic market. All indications show Turkey is on its way to becoming a global automotive hub.

Turkey’s automotive exports & imports (in billion US dollars)
YEAR EXPORT IMPORT
2008 5,3 3,3
2007 15,9 12,4
2006 11,9 11,4
2005 9,6 10,6
2004 8,3 10,2
2003 5,3 5,4
2002 3,3 2,3
2001 2,3 1,8
(more…)