The retained exchange rate hit the competition

Although Turkey signed a record export of $254.2 billion in 2022, the foreign trade deficit exceeded $110 billion as imports reached $364.4 billion. The wide gap between inflation and the dollar also caused exporters to have problems in international competition. While the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 64.27 percent in 2022, the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the dollar in the same period was limited to 34 percent by government intervention.

THE TRANSFORMATION IS TAKING

Making assessments on the subject, the president of the Association of the Automotive Industry (OSD), Cengiz Eroldu, said: “Unfortunately, we suffered a significant loss of competition in 2022. The opening of the currency-inflation gap in such a negative direction it generated a loss of competition for exporters, not only of automobiles but of course of all exports.

Stating that there was a decrease in demand in Europe, Eroldu emphasized that the transformation in the automotive sector must be maintained. Eroldu said: “The threat here is this. Now the car is changing. In other words, the proportion of traditional parts in the car is decreasing. Therefore, if we cannot establish that supply chain correctly, the added value effect created by Turkey will diminish.”

Explaining that there was a 4 percent growth in auto exports in 2022 per unit, Eroldu noted that total auto exports increased by 6 percent to $31.5 billion. Eroldu said: “This is also parallel to the country’s growth figures. In this sense, we can say that we closed successfully. When we look at our place in Turkey’s overall exports, we got a 12.2 percent share.

Cengiz Eroldu

Increased production in the automotive sector

According to OSD’s January-December 2022 data, total production increased 6 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 1,352,648 units. Car production, which increased 4 percent over last year, reached 810,889 units. Together with the production of tractors, the total production reached 1 million 402 thousand 189 units. In the commercial vehicle group, production increased by 10 percent in the January-December 2022 period, by 26 percent in the heavy commercial vehicle group and by 8 percent in the light commercial vehicle group. The commercial vehicle market increased 11 percent, the light commercial vehicle market 9 percent, and the heavy commercial vehicle market 24 percent.