Automotive sector driving force behind Türkiye’s exports

ISTANBUL

Despite an annual decline in revenues, the automotive industry once again topped the list of Türkiye’s largest exporting sectors with shipments to foreign markets amounting to $2.6 billion in June.

The automotive sector’s exports, which plunged 12.4 percent last month from a year ago, accounted for 14.1 percent of the country’s export revenues.

From January to June, local carmakers generated $17.7 billion in export revenue, marking a 2.3 percent increase compared with the same period of 2023.

The 12-month trailing export revenue of the industry was $35.4 billion, according to the latest data from the Türkiye Exporters’ Assembly (TİM).

The local auto market has been experiencing weak demand this year compared with 2023. The combined sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles declined for a third month in a row in June on an annual basis.

The market shrank 5.3 percent year-on-year in June with total sales amounting to 106,000 units. Sales fell 10.1 percent in the previous month and declined 22.3 percent in March.

Automotive is one of the key industries in Türkiye, employing tens of thousands of people. Several carmakers entered the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce’s (İSO) top 500 industrial enterprises list.

Ford Otomotiv ranked second on the list with production-based sales at 238 billion Turkish Liras in 2023, while Totoya Otomotiv claimed the fifth spot at 127.5 billion liras. Oyak Renault and Mercedes-Benz Türkiye ranked sixth and eighth at 107 billion liras and 94 billion liras, respectively.

After automotive, the chemicals sector was the second largest exporting industry with a 12 percent share in Türkiye’s overall export revenue.

Chemical exports were down 6.5 percent in June to $2.23 billion with the first half exports rising 7.9 percent annually to $15.8 billion.

Defense exports on the rise

Turkish defense and aerospace companies boosted their exports by 69.4 percent year-on-year last month to $563.4 million, which corresponded to a 3 percent share in the country’s total export revenues.

In the first half of 2024, the defense and aerospace sector’s export revenue surged nearly 22 percent on an annual basis to $2.88 billion.

Turkish-made defense and aerospace products are used in 185 countries, said Haluk Görgün, head of the Defense Industries Agency (SSB).

Defense exports, which stood at only $248 million in 2002, climbed to an all-time high of $5.54 billion last year.

The number of projects carried out by local defense companies surged from 62 in 2002 to more than 1,000 in 2024.

The project volume, on the other hand, leaped from around $5.5 billion two decades ago to reach $96.3 billion.