Automotive Exports December 2019

Having dropped
Turkey’s automotive industry on
the way to achieve 2nd highest
exports ever
The locomotive of Turkish exports, the
automotive industry, is expected to
achieve its second-best year ever in
terms of foreign sales.
The industry’s exports will exceed $30
billion at the end of this year, according
to Baran Çelik, chairman of the
Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters
Association (OİB), who said it will be
the second-highest value following last
year’s all-time high figure.
In the January-October period of 2019,
exports of the automotive industry
reached $25.4 billion, Çelik told.
Automotive exports last year hit an
all-time high and reached $31.6 billion.
Compared to the same period of last
year, exports are 3.5% lower in the first
10 months of this year. Çelik pointed
out that the main market for the sector
is the European Union countries and
that the exports are mostly based on
euros. “The fact that the euro-dollar
exchange rate is at a disadvantage
in 2019 compared to last year shows
that we are a bit behind because our
exports are made in euros and counted
in dollars,” he said. “If we were to hold
euro-based export statistics, we could
see an increase of 1% in euro-based
exports in 2019 as well.”
Elaborating on the performance
expectations for the rest of the year,
he noted that they see that they can
easily surpass $30 billion. “Exports
worth $30 billion are a threshold for
the automotive industry, which we
surpassed in 2018 with a recordbreaking
figure,” Çelik continued. “We
anticipate that we can surpass $30
billion, or even $31 billion this year. We
can say it will be the second-highest
export year.”
Noting that 2017 was the closest year
to this figure with $28.5 billion, he said
in the previous years, they had exports
below $25 billion. “Reaching $31 billion
in exports this year is, of course, a
successful outcome. This figure covers
a portion of 17% of Turkey’s overall
exports,” he added.
Saying that exports to EU countries,
the traditional market for the sector,
shrank by 10% this year, Çelik stated
that they compensated some of this
with new markets and pointed to North
Africa, Russia, Israel, and the Americas
in this regard.
“Our exports to these countries are
facing two-digit growth. In this respect,
in terms of the diversification of the
export market, this year is better than
the previous years. However, there is
still much to do about it because our
dependence on EU countries is at 77%
in exports. This figure went down from
80% to 77%,” Çelik further stressed,
suggesting that they should increase
exports to other markets as well.
December 2019
12