Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

Turkish industrial production slumped 21.3 percent in January, the most since at least 1986, as exporters unable to find buyers suspended production and fired workers. This was the sixth consecutive monthly drop.

The drop in production compares with a revised 17.8 percent in December, the Turkish Statistical Institute, or TÜİK, said on its Web site yesterday. Output was expected to decline 19 percent, according to the median estimate of nine economists polled by Bloomberg. (more…)

Posted by meb at March 10th, 2009

The capacity utilization rate in the Turkish manufacturing industry was down in February, the statistics board announced on Tuesday.

Turkey’s Board of Statistics (TÜİK) made public the tendencies in the manufacturing industry in February 2009, and said the capacity utilization rate dropped to 63.8 percent in the mentioned month when compared with the same month in 2008. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 27th, 2009

Turkish durable goods maker Arçelik and its television-manufacturing unit Grundig Elektronik have decided to merge in order to increase their competitiveness, the companies said on Friday.

Shares in Grundig were 17.2 percent higher at 0.68 lira after the deal was announced, bringing gains over the last two days to 40 percent. Arçelik shares were 4 percent at 1.82 lira. The companies are both part of the Koç Holding conglomerate. Arçelik announced that it was also raising its capital to 649.9 million lira ($382 million) from 400 million lira in a rights issue. It also said it was selling shares in finance company Koc Finansal Hizmetleri to other Koc group companies for 250 million lira. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 25th, 2009

Two major tire manufacturers halted production in Turkey on Tuesday due to problems stemming from the ongoing global financial crisis.

Brisa Bridgestone Sabancı Tire Manufacturing and Trading Inc, a joint venture between Bridgestone Corporation of Japan, one the world’s largest manufacturers of tires, and the Sabancı Group, Turkey’s leading industrial conglomerate, halted production at their two plants in Kocaeli. Pirelli, the world’s leading tire manufacturer, also suspended production in their Kocaeli plant. Manufacturing will be halted for a week at the two Brisa factories. (more…)

Posted by meb at February 4th, 2009

Turkey’s shipbuilding industry, which has grown exponentially in the last six years with orders coming in from around the world, has sustained heavy damage from a drop in global demand, but a new stimulus package that aims to turn things around will soon be introduced.
Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said the rescue package, which is full of measures to address the problems faced by shipbuilders, will be finalized in 10 to 15 days.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, the minister said preliminary discussions on the content of this package took place during the most recent Economy Coordination Board (EKK) meeting last month, when the problems of other major sectors were also discussed. (more…)

Posted by meb at January 8th, 2009

Turkish industrial production fell 13.9 percent year-on-year in November, due mainly a signification drop in demand in the automotive sector, the Turkish Statistics Institute said on Thursday. The figures reveal the largest drop in production since November 2001.

Turkish industrial output tumbled the most in seven years in November as demand for cars slumped in Europe and local automakers responded by halting production.

The Turkish economy has slowed sharply as the impact of the global credit crisis continues to be felt more deeply. Gross domestic product expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, its slowest pace in six years, after growing 2.3 percent in the second three month term. (more…)

Posted by meb at January 2nd, 2009

The automotive industry in Turkey, like so many other countries throughout the world, entered a period of stagnation in the second half of 2008 as the global financial crisis, coupled with a resulting drop in demand, slowed the industry’s production lines.

Tens of thousands of workers relying on work in the sector to feed their families have lost their jobs and the gloomy situation is expected to get even worse in 2009. It is estimated that just in Bursa, a major center of auto manufacturing in Turkey, nearly 55,000 people will be laid off this year. Experts say the crisis will get even deeper in 2009 and the first positive signs will only be seen by early 2010. Many companies have already started to grant their workers temporary leave as they halt production for two-to-four-week periods. (more…)

Posted by meb at December 24th, 2008

Turkey’s shipbuilding industry has been experiencing a serious decline in production over the last four months. Erkan Selah, a leading figure of the industry, says the ‘shipyards crisis’ is due to the controversy over fatal workplace accidents in Tuzla and not the global crisis

As the global financial crisis begins to bite in Turkey, many industries have complained of its destructive effects. But for the shipbuilding industry, the crisis began much earlier and due to a very different reason, according to a top industry representative.

The crisis of Turkish shipbuilding began with “the incidents in Tuzla shipyards,” Erkan Selah, vice chairman of the Turkish Shipbuilders Association, or GİSBİR, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview last week. (more…)