Turkish automotive market losing steam on higher prices

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan (L) and İnan Kıraç, owner of vehicle producer Karsan, pose by the company’s concept V1 vehicle at the Geneva automobile fair.

The Turkish automotive market shrank more than 30 percent in January-February 2012, compared with the same period last year, according to a report by a sector association. However, February sales figures show an increase over the 10 year average February rates.

Passenger car and light commercial vehicles sales were at 70,869 units, according to a February report published by the Automotive Distributors Association (ODD), while the figure was 103,555 in January-February 2011, demonstrating a 31.56 percent decrease in sales.

The passenger car and light commercial vehicle market in Turkey started to contract in the third
quarter of 2011. It contracted 11.75 percent in the last quarter of 2011. The higher Special Consumption Tax, rising vehicle prices, and hikes in the loan rates are among the reasons for the substantial contractions in the market, professionals say, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Commercial vehicle sales drop 40 percent
A total 41,324 automobiles and light commercial vehicles were sold in February, which is a 29.6 percent decrease on the same period last year, when the figure was 58,663. However, compared with average February sales in the last 10 years, February 2012 sales demonstrate a 37 percent rise.

Passenger car sales in the first two months of this year were down 27 percent to 50,266 units. The figure was 68,872 in the same period last year. Automobile sales in February decreased 25.16 percent to 29,189 units. Compared with the average February sales in the last 10 years the figure shows a 54 percent increase.

In the light commercial vehicles sector, the January-February 2012 sales dropped 40.6 percent to 20,603 units, from the 34,683 registered in the same period last year.

The light commercial vehicle market shrank 38.7 percent to 12,135 units in February, compared with the same month in 2011. But the figure demonstrates a 7 percent rise compared with the average February sales in the last 10 years.

Sales of automobiles with diesel motors decreased 30 percent on an annual basis in the January-February sales of this year. The share of diesel automobiles in total sales dropped to 58 percent from 61 percent in this period.

Sedan cars were the most preferred vehicles in total sales, according to the report.