With more than $3.96 billion in exports, Ford Automotive has ranked first in Turkey's Top 1,000 Exporters List for the year 2016, prepared by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).
Ford was followed by Tofaş Türk Otomobil and Oyak-Renault Otomobil with exports worth $3.19 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.
The total exports of the top companies decreased 1.13 percent to $81.4 billion last year as Turkey's automotive sector took the lead with a 27.2 percent share in exports. Among top exporting cities, Istanbul ranked first with 434 companies.
Exports revenues from Germany, Turkey's largest export destination, increased 4.3 percent to reach $14 billion. Exports to Iraq, on the other hand, shrunk the most among Turkey's the top 10 export destinations.
TİM Chairman Mehmet Büyükekşi said that they think at least 50 companies will exceed the $1 billion threshold in exports by 2023 and their goal was to make Turkey a leading exporter not just in the region, but globally.
"In order to achieve this goal, we must export goods with high added value and invest more in R&D, innovation, design and branding."
According to Büyükekşi, the top 1,000 companies estimated that the year-end dollar exchange rate would be 3.86 and the year-end euro exchange rate would be 4.11. While, it was estimated that Turkey's exports would surge by 9.5 percent to reach $156 billion.
The findings of the research, carried out for almost 15 years covering 26 sectors, were announced by Büyükekşi at a press conference.
Ford Automotive was named the largest exporting company of 2016 with $3.96 billion. It was followed by Tofaş Türk Otomobil and Oyak-Renault Otomobil with $3.19 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.
Last year, Tofaş Türk Otomobil's exports skyrocketed by 55 percent, while Oyak Renault Otomobil's exports increase by 5 percent.
Istanbul named the largest exporting cityAs for the distribution of the top 1,000 companies by region, the Marmara Region ranked first with 586 companies, with Istanbul being named the largest exporting city with 434 companies and $57.4 billion in export volume. It was followed by Bursa with $13 billion, Kocaeli with $10.2 billion, İzmir with $7.9 billion and Gaziantep with $6.3 billion.
The average profitability of the top 500 exporters in the list continued to increase, reaching 6.8 percent. However, average profitability of the other 500 exporters declined by 5.52 percent from the previous year. In terms of the capital structures of the top 1,000 companies, there were 726 companies with private capital, 108 with foreign and three with public capital. Regarding the year-end forecasts of the top exporters, the TİM chairman said that their estimation of the year-end dollar exchange rate was 3.86. For euro it was 4.11. The leading exporters also predicted that Turkey's exports would soar by 9.5 percent and reach $156 billion. "We think that we will surpass our year-end export target of $155 billion," he said.