Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at July 17th, 2008

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, especially famous for his ownership of British Premier League soccer club Chelsea, is planning to order a second yacht from Turkey, after being impressed by the technology and craftsmanship of his first one.

Ada Marine Group Executive Board President Murat Bilican recalled that the Russian tycoon had initially purchased an ABY 36 Oyster model luxury yacht, which was constructed at İstanbul’s Tuzla shipyards last year and delivered to Abramovich in December. The construction had taken nine months, a fairly quick turnover time for yachts of this class. “The first yacht is currently anchored at Chelsea harbor in London,” Bilican noted. The first yacht, which cost YTL 780,000, has a composite hull made of bulletproof carbon fiber. All the necessary technology for communication was also installed in the yacht, allowing its owners to contact any location in the world. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 17th, 2008

Turkey’s year-on-year exports surpassed $125 billion and have reached the target for this year, a state minister announced yesterday.

Exports rose 35 percent between Jan. 1 and July 15, State Minister Kürşad Tüzmen told the Anatolia news agency. Industrial products exports reached $64 billion in the first half of the year, Tüzmen said, adding that the iron and steel sector reported the greatest rise, with an increase of 69 percent. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 14th, 2008

Foreign Trade Minister Kürşad Tüzmen has said Iraq would become a neighbor with an annual oil revenue of over $250 billion once stability is achieved in the country and that the total trade volume between Turkey and Iraq would reach $30 billion as Iraq becomes normalized.

Trade volume between the two countries in the first six months of this year exceeded $2.2 billion. Turkey is seeking to make this figure $5 billion by the end of the year. (more…)

Posted by meb at July 11th, 2008

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…)

Posted by meb at July 4th, 2008

Turkey reiterated yesterday its efforts to convince Russia to support its plans for building the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a project hoped to alleviate the burden on the Turkish straits.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Ankara yesterday for a series of meetings with Turkish officials, including his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan. (more…)

Posted by meb at June 30th, 2008

Trade volume in Turkey’s free trade zones increased 14 percent to $11.1 billion in the first five months of 2008 when compared to the same period last year.

According to figures from the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat, the İstanbul Leather Free Zone exported $2.5 billion of products, while the Aegean Free Zone exported $1.7 billion and İstanbul-Atatürk Airport (AHL) $1.3 billion in the first five months of 2007. (more…)

Posted by meb at June 28th, 2008

Turkey’s policy of determining strategies to enhance exports result in a considerable contribution to the overall export volume. These strategies are expected to be implemented until at least 2010.

An example of such success, the “Neighboring and Regional Countries Export Strategy” was put in place eight years ago. That year, exports to the countries covered by this strategy totaled $6.9 billion. As of the end of 2007, they have reached $40.7 billion. (more…)

Posted by meb at June 27th, 2008

Grundig Elektronik, a Turkish television-set maker, aims to increase its market share to 5 percent with the Grundig brand and 15 percent with all of its brands and original design manufacturer sales by 2010 in Europe, said the general manager of Grundig Elektronik yesterday.

Grundig also plans to develop its product range by phasing out production of cathode-ray tube televisions by 2010 to focus on production of liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions, Oğuzhan Öztürk added. “Our aim is to increase our turnover by 20 percent to reach YTL 1.7 billion in 2008. We will increase our television production volume from the current 3.2 million to 5.5 million by 2013, which comprises only sales of LCDs,” Öztürk told reporters at Grundig’s Beylikdüzü production plant in Istanbul. (more…)