Turkey’s automotive sector achieved $ 11.8 billion (TL 163.72 billion) in sub-industry exports last year, according to official data.
The auto sector, which has championed Turkey’s exports for 16 years, achieved a total of $ 29.3 billion in overseas sales in 2021, according to a report released by Anadolu Agency (AA) on Sunday. citing data from the Uludağ Automobile Industry Exporters Association. (OIB).
The automotive sector achieved the highest exports of the sub-industry product group. The group, which has sales in more than 200 countries, free zones and autonomous regions, increased its exports by around 26% compared to 2020 when sales amounted to 9.3 billion dollars.
Exports by sub-industries accounted for 40.22% of total automotive industry export sales.
Germany has carved out the lion’s share of Turkish sub-industry exports with 23.23%.
Exports to this country last year increased by 30.62% compared to the same period of 2020 and reached $ 2.7 billion.
Italy is the second country to which manufacturers in the automotive sub-industry export the most. Exports to Italy in 2021 were recorded at $ 778.4 million, up 37.47% from 2020.
The sector’s exports to the United States, which ranks third in the list, increased 35.07% from the previous year to $ 728.3 million.
The auto industry also exported over $ 100 million each to France, UK, Russia, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Morocco, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Egypt, Hungary, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Czech Republic and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the local auto industry’s exports jumped by around 15% throughout 2021, according to official data released last week, but sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Turkey fell by 4.6%.
Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles fell to about 737,350 units last year, according to data from the Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) on Wednesday. Sales in 2020 amounted to nearly 773,000.
In December, sales fell 40.3% year-on-year to 62,243, the association added, from 104,293 units in 2020.
Auto sales in Turkey have declined in recent months due to supply issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic and high lending rates amid the falling Turkish lira.
The ODD predicted that sales would be between 825,000 and 875,000 in 2021, before increasing to 850,000-900,000 in 2022.
The industry defended the country’s annual overseas sales for the 16th consecutive year. It accounted for 13.3% of overall exports last year, which jumped by more than a third to a record high of nearly $ 225.4 billion.
The European Union market accounted for 64.6% of total auto exports, with $ 19 billion.
Germany has become the biggest export market. Sales in Germany increased 17% from the previous year, reaching $ 4.1 billion.
The industry also saw an increase in its exports to France and the United Kingdom, with 14% and 39% respectively. Exports to Morocco also increased by 22%.
While exports to the Middle East fell 15% last year, they increased 38% to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), 28% to the North American Free Trade Area and 21% to African countries.