Carmakers drive Turkey’s top 10 industrialists’ list

ISTANBUL

Car manufacturers have dominated Turkey’s largest 500 industrial companies list with a total of five automotive firms taking place in the top 10 list by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (İSO), making more than 60 billion Turkish Liras ($17 billion) in sales revenue last year. 

There were also four Koç Holding companies on the list, with the company’s oil refinery TÜPRAŞ remaining atop of the list with a 32.5 billion lira ($9.3 billion) sales revenue. 

Ford-Otosan, a joint venture between Ford and Turkey’s Koç, and Tofaş, another Koç company along with Fiat, ranked second and third in the 2016 İSO list announced in Istanbul on June 5. 

Another carmaker, Oyak-Renault, a joint venture between Turkey’s Oyak and France’s Renault, ranked fourth in the list with a more than 11.5 billion liras ($3.3 billion) of sales revenue. 

Toyota Automotive climbed up to sixth on the list from 15th place by posting an around 10.6 billion lira ($3 billion) revenue. 

Hyundai-Assan, a joint venture between Hyundai and Turkey’s Kibar Holding, ranked eighth on the 2016 list. 

Turkey’s annual auto exports, including trucks and buses, surpassed 1 million units for the first time in 2016, as foreign automakers’ investment in new models and a recovery in its mainstay European market lifted shipments.

According to industry figures, Turkey exported 1.14 million units last year, up 15 percent from the year before. Automotive exports hit a record high for the fourth straight year.

According to the İSO list, Ford Otosan was the largest exporter of Turkey with an around $3.9 billion in volume, followed by Tofaş with $3.3 billion, Oyak-Renault with $2.8 billion and Toyota with $2.7 billion. 


Arçelik ranked fifth 

Koç Holding’s home appliances maker Arçelik ranked fifth in İSO’s top 10 industrial companies, climbing down by two places compared to 2015. 

The Turkish Electricity Generation Corporation (EÜAŞ) ranked seventh in İSO’s top 10 list with a 7.4 billion lira ($2.1 billion) sales volume. 

Two iron and steel companies, İçdaş Çelik and İskenderun Demir Çelik, ranked ninth and tenth respectively, in the top 10 list. 

Turkey’s top 500 industrialists’ sales revenue rose to 490 billion liras ($140 billion) in 2016 with an 8.8 percent year-on-year increase. Their exports also saw a 3.1 percent year-on-year increase, climbing up to $55.1 billion. 

“Turkish industrialists remained to be strong in a tough year, which was full of financial difficulties, foreign exchange fluctuations and various social, political, security and geopolitical risks,” said İSO president Erol Bahçıvan at a press release held to announce the 2016 list. 

Top industrialists paid more than 50 percent of their 52 billion lira ($15 billion) operation margins to meet their financing costs. 

Bahçıvan noted that the financing costs rose to 29 billion liras in 2016 with a 3.6 percent of year-on-year increase.
 
“The financing costs-to-net sales rate decreased 0.3 percent to 5.2 percent last year. This showed that Turkish industrialists managed their financial activities in an efficient manner despite a financial strain especially in the second half of 2016,” he added. 

He also noted that the share of their financial expenditure in their operating income declined to 55.4 percent from 63.4 percent in 2015.