Carmakers lead Turkey’s 2017 top exporters’ list

ISTANBUL

Carmakers were ranked as one of Turkey’s largest three exporters in 2017, with Ford Otosan, a joint venture between Ford Motor and Turkey’s Koç Holding, topping the list with an export volume of $4.79 billion.

According to the “Top 1,000 Exporters in 2017” list by a sector association, Ford Otosan was followed by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey with $4.44 billion and Tofaş, another joint venture of Koç with Fiat, by making an around $3.2 billion worth of exports last year.

Oyak-Renault, a joint venture between Oyak and France’s Renault, ranked third in the list prepared by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), with $2.8 billion in exports.

Five of the top 10 export companies operate in the automotive sector — Ford Otosan, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey, Tofaş, Oyak-Renault and Mercedes-Benz Türk.

Some 1,000 Turkish companies made nearly 60 percent — $92.3 billion —all of the country’s exports in 2017, according to TİM data.

The automotive sector’s share in the top 1,000 exporters was 27.2 percent ($28.5 billion), followed by textile and steel sectors with 9.7 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively, the TİM also announced on June 12.

The top 1,000 companies’ exports rose by 13.4 percent to reach $92.3 billion in 2017, compared with the previous year, TİM said.

Ten companies climbed over the $1 billion export mark during the year, while the first 500 companies made 50.3 percent of the country’s total exports, it added.

“Considering Turkey’s potential, 10 companies that made more than $1 billion exports were not enough. Our target is 50 companies for 2023,” TİM chair Mehmet Büyükekşi said in a press release.

He added that for this target they need to export more value-added products and more investment needs to be made in research and development (R&D), innovation, design and branding.

“Last year, some 202 of the top 1,000 companies had R&D centers and they spent $6.2 billion on R&D,” Büyükekşi said.

“By the end of 2018, we will hit a historical high in exports reaching over $170 billion,” he added.

Turkey’s share in world trade was 0.9 percent in 2017. This figure will increase in 2018, he added.