Automotive production tops 1 million in ten months

ISTANBUL

Turkish carmakers production increased by 4.6 percent in the first ten months from the same period of 2021 to hit more than 1 million vehicles, data from the Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (OSD) has shown.

From January to October, local companies’ passenger car output exhibited a slight decline of 0.3 percent on an annual basis to around 634,000 units.

Including tractor production, the automotive industry’s total output reached 1.12 million units.

In the commercial vehicle segment, production increased by 13 percent in the January-October period from the first ten months of 2021.

Data show that the automotive industry’s heavy commercial vehicle output rose by 31 percent on an annual basis, while the increase in light commercial vehicle production was 11 percent.

OSD reported that the industry delivered a total of 779,000 vehicles to foreign markets, marking a 2.7 percent increase from January-October last year. Local carmakers’ export revenues amounted to $25.4 billion in the first ten months of the year, registering a 4.3 percent increase compared with the same period of 2021.

Passenger car exports fell 1.8 percent to 447,000 units and revenues from the sale of passenger cars to foreign markets dropped 5.3 percent year-on-year to $7.14 billion.

The component industry’s export revenues increased by 8.5 percent in January-October to $10.6 billion from a year ago, while total vehicle industry exports climbed 1.5 percent year-on-year to $14.75 billion, OSD said.

Domestic market

Data from the trading group also showed that total vehicle market contracted by 3.7 percent in the first ten months of the year. Some 619,000 vehicles were sold on the domestic market in January-October, down from 642,000 in the same period of 2021.

Passenger car sales dropped 6 percent year-on-year to 447,000 units.

In October alone, however, total vehicle sales grew 15 percent on an annual basis to more than 69,000 with passenger car sales rising 17.1 percent to 47,400 units.

The industry’s total production grew by 6.7 percent to 114,000 units. Passenger car output fell 2.8 percent from October 2021 to 62,400.

In the month, Türkiye’s total vehicle and passenger car imports were up 20.5 percent and 19.1 percent to 38,000 and 29,700 units, respectively.

The overall automotive exports, on the other hand, climbed 2.3 percent last month from a year ago to $2.7 billion, but passenger car exports plunged nearly 20 percent year-on-year to $737 million.