By Azernews

By News Center

The Turkish automotive industry exports amounted to $2.8 billion in June, Yeni Shafak newspaper reports.

In keeping with the statement made by the Uludag Automotive Industry Exporters' Association (OIB), the automotive industry's June exports, which have been the top sector of Turkiye's exports for 16 consecutive years, hit $2.8 billion, a 17.9 percent rise over the same month in 2021.

"Although we, as the automotive industry, struggled with multiple problems such as the chip crisis and energy costs, we managed to reach the highest monthly export figure this year in June," OIB chairman Baran Celik said.

In the first six months of 2022, exports increased by 6.1 percent and reached $15.3 billion. At the automotive industry's sub-product groupings, exports in the "supply industry" climbed by 11 percent in June compared to the same month of the previous year, reaching about $1.2 billion.

Exports of "passenger cars" increased by 44 percent amounting to $876 million, "bus-minibus-midibus" exports increased by 14.5 percent to $142 million, while exports of "motor vehicles for transporting goods" decreased by 16 percent to $381 million. Among the other product groups, "tractors" increased by 182 percent with an export figure of $140 million last month.

Exports to Germany, the country's largest market, surged by 20 percent to $403 million. Exports to France, one of the industry's main customers, increased by 39 percent to $363 million, while exports to the United Kingdom increased by 3 percent to $284 million.

Moreover, there was a 107 percent rise in exports to Poland, a 52 percent increase to Spain, a 12 percent increase to the United States, a 33 percent increase in Belgium, a 211 percent increase in Portugal, and a 5 percent reduction in Slovenia and a 24 percent decrease to the Russian Federation.

The European Union (EU), the largest market by nation group, earned a 67 percent share of exports in June, with exports totaling $1.8 billion, a 27 percent rise. Exports to other European nations and North American Free Trade Agreement countries increased by 9 percent last month.

Celik stated that in the first half of 2022, the automotive industry exports reached $15.3 billion with an increase of 6.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. He added that the average monthly export was $2.5 billion in the January-June period.

"While we had double-digit growth in the supply industry, passenger automobiles, and bus-midibus-minibus product categories, we saw significant growth in Poland, Spain, and Portugal. Likewise, we recorded an increase of six percent in the first half of the year. We believe that the increase in our automotive exports will continue and we will exceed our target at the end of the year," Celik stressed.