Northwestern Turkey's Sakarya, home to manufacturers such as Toyota, Otokar and TürkTraktör, exported 88.7% of the 97,218 vehicles that were produced in the facilities in the province in the first four months of the year.
Sakarya, which remains seventh in exports after Istanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, İzmir, Ankara and Gaziantep, contributed some $474.81 million to exports in April with automotive, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, air-conditioning, chemicals and chemical products, machinery and machine parts industries.
In the first four months of the year, Sakarya carried out over $1.82 billion in exports, in which the automotive industry had the lion's share of $1.68 billion.
According to Automotive Industry Association (OSD) data, Turkey exported 431,005 out of 496,365 vehicles produced in the first four months of the year. Sakarya covered 20% of Turkey's automotive exports and has the largest share of this area
Sakarya produced 23,150 automobiles, 64 midibuses, 96 buses, 10 pick-ups and 2,059 tractors, amounting to 25,379 vehicles, in April. A total of 845 vehicles were produced in the city on a daily basis in the same period.
As far as the first four-month data on a company basis go, Toyota maintained leadership with 90,088 vehicles, followed by TürkTraktör with 6,541 vehicles and Otokar with 589 vehicles. In this period, Toyota, TürkTraktör and Otokar exported 81,150, 4,717 and 458 vehicles, respectively.
Toyota produced Corolla, Toyota C-HR and new generation Corolla Hybrid type automobiles at its factory located in the Arifiye district and exported 21,474 vehicles in April, corresponding to nearly 92% of its overall production.
Toyota aims to break a new record with the new generation Corolla Hybrid model, which it started to produce in Sakarya this year.
Otokar, one of the leading companies of the Turkish defense industry, produced 170 buses, midibuses and pick-ups in April. The company's exports soared to 115 vehicles from 23 vehicles in the same month last year, achieving a nearly 500% upsurge. TürkTraktör exported 1,164 tractors out of the 2,059 it produced in April.