Car exports from Sakarya top $2 billion in first half

SAKARYA

Exports by carmakers based in the northwestern province of Sakarya amounted to some $2.3 billion in January-June this year.

Sakarya is home to some of the major automotive companies, such as Toyota, Otokar and Türk Traktör, and ranked fourth in auto exports after the northwestern industrial province of Bursa, Istanbul and another northwestern province, Kocaeli, in the first half of 2021.

Sakarya-based carmakers produced a total of 148,000 vehicles in January-June and shipped a little more than 104,000 units to foreign markets, generating $2.3 billion in export revenues, which corresponded to nearly 34 percent of the country’s total automotive exports.

From January to June, the Turkish automotive industry’s production stood at 669,000 units, and of those, 469,000 vehicles were shipped to foreign markets.

Sakarya-based companies manufactured some 122,000 passenger cars, 374 buses, 339 midibuses, 307 small trucks, 64 pickup trucks and 25,000 tractors.

In the first six months of the year, Totoya produced 122,000 passenger cars and managed to increase its exports by 21 percent on an annual basis to 79,802 units.

Otokar, which also operates in the defense industry, produced around 1,100 vehicles, including buses, small trucks and pickup trucks. The company exported 349 vehicles in the first half of 2021, up from 301 vehicles a year ago.

Finally, the tractor production of Türk Traktör increased to 25,000 units and shipped around 7,600 of them to foreign markets.