Turkish automotive industrialists revise up production, export targets

ISTANBUL - Reuters

AA photo

With less than two months before the end of the year, Turkey’s Automotive Industrialists Association (OSD) has revised up its 2015 production and export targets. With a sharp increase in research and development (R&D) subsidies, sector investments and the revival in the European market, the association expects to see record high figures by the end of this year and to hit new records in 2016. 

OSD President Kudret Önen said the yearend production targets have been revised from 1,225 million units to 1.325-1.35 million units, and export targets from 925,000 units to 950,000-970,000 units, in a press meeting over the weekend. 

The domestic market sales target for cars and light and heavy commercial vehicles is at between 940,000 and 960,000 units. 

The Turkish domestic market saw its highest ever sales figures in 2011 at 911,000 units. 

Stating that the sector had enjoyed a dramatic rise in production and export figures in the last two years thanks to a series of new subsidies and R&D incentives, Önen added that production capacity had been increased by around 20 percent over the last two years thanks to state incentives.

He added that Tofaş, a joint venture of Turkey’s Koç Holding and Italy’s Fiat, and Ford Otosan, another joint venture between Koç Holding and Ford Motor Company, will enhance their product range both in 2015 and 2016. 

1.75 million units in capacity

Investment projects worth a total of $4.5 billion were announced in the period of 2013 and 2014. With the new investments, the sector’s production capacity has increased to 1.75 million units, according to OSD representatives. 

“We’ll see astonishing production figures in 2016 … It is too early to give an exact target for the next year, but we expect at least 5 percent of increase in production figures, unless negative incidents happen in the domestic market,” Önen said. 

According to data from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (IICA), the western European market, which is the largest market for Turkey’s car exporters, saw an 8.7 percent of growth in the first half of the year. 

Turkey’s OSD increased its production by 18.2 percent in the first ten months of the year to 1.11 million units and its exports by an 11.7 percent to 807,000 units. 

While exports rose by 12.8 percent to 15.6 billion euros in the first 10 months of the year on the euro-basis, they regressed by 6.7 percent to $17.8 billion on the U.S. dollar basis due to the sharp decrease in the euro’s value against the dollar. 

The OSD expects to close the year at around 18.9-19.5 billion euros in export revenue. 

The sector has the lions share in the country’s exports with a share of around 15 percent by the end of October.