Turkish automotive sales seen contracting nearly 40 pct in 2018: Association

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s automotive sales are seen contracting 38.8 percent in 2018, an official for Turkey’s Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) said on Oct. 17, adding that production is expected to slow down by five percent.

Hayri Erce, general coordinator for ODD, also said during a news conference that Turkey’s automotive exports would decrease 2.5 percent in 2018, as Reuters has reported.

“We saw a 68 percent contraction in September. October will unlikely be different. We will likely end this year with a nearly 40 percent contraction in the market with a total of 600,000 units,” said Erce, adding that a number of factors led to a shrinkage in the market, including a significant rise in foreign currency and loan costs.

Turkey’s 2019 automotive sales are seen at 450,000 vehicles, including heavy commercial vehicles, said ODD Chair Ali Bilaloğlu.

“Any factors that will lead to a rebound in consumer confidence will positively affect our sector,” said Bilaloğlu in response to a question on how the markets would recover.

Turkish consumers’ confidence in the country’s economy sharply fell in September, down 13.2 percent on a monthly basis, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) has shown.

The consumer confidence index stands at 59.3 this month, while the index was 68.3 in August, TÜİK said on Sept. 20.

Last month, the consumer confidence index fell 6.5 percent from 73.1 in July, which witnessed the highest data of this year.

The September data was the lowest in the last three years.

According to ODD data, the market contracted 26 percent on a yearly basis with 463,456 units being sold.