In Turkey last year, the total automotive production increased by 13 percent to 1.7 million compared to 2016, while automobile production reached 1.1 million with an increase of 18 percent, providing the sector with the highest levels in both total automotive and automobile production.
The Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) announced its annual production results covering the January-December 2017 period.
With these figures, both total automotive and automobile production reached their highest levels in Turkey. Including tractors, total production reached 1.7 million units last year.
Last year, production rose by 3 percent in the commercial vehicle group, 2 percent in the light commercial vehicle group and 23 percent in the heavy commercial vehicle group. While this change in heavy commercial vehicles was driven by a base effect, production decreased by 32 percent compared to 2015.
80 PCT OF PRODUCTION EXPORTED
In 2017, total automotive exports increased by 17 percent and automobile exports by 24 percent compared to the previous year. In this period, total exports amounted to 1.3 million units, followed by automobile exports with 921,000 units. Thus, 80 percent of the total production in the automotive industry was exported.
In the same period, total automotive exports increased by 20 percent to $29 billion, which corresponded to 25.7 billion euros with an increase of 17 percent.
Automobile exports, on the other hand, increased by 41 percent to $11.8 billion, which amounted to 10.5 billion euros with an increase of 39 percent. Tractor exports also decreased by 4 percent compared to 2016, reaching 13,123 units.
In this period, main industrial exports increased by 25 percent and subindustry exports by 10 percent in dollar terms.
According to the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) data, total automotive industry exports maintained the leading position in 2017 with an 18.2 percent share in exports.
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION SALES INCREASE IN LOCAL MARKET
In 2017, the total market decreased by 3 percent to 980,277 units. In this period, the automobile market narrowed by 5 percent to 722,759 units.
Last year, the commercial vehicle market and light commercial vehicle market grew by 3 percent compared to the previous year, while the market maintained the same level in the heavy commercial vehicle group. The market contraction in the heavy commercial vehicle group reached 44 percent in the last two years.
The market share of imports in automobile sales was 70 percent in 2017. In 2017, total automobile sales decreased by 5 percent and imported automobile sales by 10 percent compared to the previous year, while domestic automobile sales rose by 13 percent. The recently introduced automobile projects had a significant effect on the increase in the share of domestic production in the automobile market.
The market share of imports in light commercial vehicle sales, on the other hand, stood at 47 percent. Last year, total light commercial vehicle sales increased by 3 percent, domestic light commercial vehicle sales by 4 percent, and light commercial vehicle sales by 2 percent compared to 2016.
In 2017, the heavy commercial vehicle market maintained the same level compared to the previous year, reaching 24,083 units. In the same period, the truck market increased by 1 percent to 21,067 units, and the minibus market by 5 percent to 2,120 units, while the bus market decreased by 34 percent to 896 units.
Evaluating the 2017 market free from the bass effect, the contraction in comparison to 2015 reached 44 percent in the heavy commercial vehicle group and truck market, 36 percent in the minibus market and 36 percent in the bus market.
AUTOMOBILE SALES UP IN JANUARY
The number of automobiles sold rose 4 percent year-on-year to reach 26,611 in January, the Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) said last week.
Overall auto sales, including light trucks, dropped to 35,076 in the month, a fall of 0.7 percent from January 2017, the OSD said in a report.
During the same period, light truck sales slipped by 12 percent to stand at 8,465. The association expects that at the end of 2018, Turkey's overall auto sales market will hover between 925,000 and 975,000.
