Turkey’s position at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and Turkey’s Customs Union agreement with the EU make it an ideal location to penetrate markets in Central Asia, the CIS and the Caucasus for automotive manufacturers. Most international vehicle producers already have production in Turkey. Presently, there are 19 international vehicle producers in the Turkish market including; Ford, Toyota, Renault, Fiat, Chrysler, Honda, Hyundai, Peugeot, MAN, Mercedes, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, through joint/venture partnerships with local firms, direct investment, or license agreements. Lately, VW is looking into opening a production facility in Europe, and Turkey is considered as an option for a new production site, in addition to Romania and Bulgaria.
The Automotive Distributors Association (ODO) states that the Turkish automotive sector has provided a net foreign trade surplus of $6.5 billion in 2017, and another $7.2 billion in the first eight months of 2018. The trade surplus in the automotive industry in Turkey has exceeded a total of $30 billion in the last 13 years.
Automotive Industry Exporters Association (OSB) suggests that the automotive exports in the first nine months of 2018 reached $26.2 billion (FOB), and 71% of this volume belongs to the vehicles industry.
As for manufacturing, data of the Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) shows that the automobile production in Turkey has a high production volume. In 2017, automobile production increased by 20% to 1.7 million passenger cars compared to 2016. With the production level of the year 2016, Turkey ranks 15th in the world in automobile production and 6th in Europe.
According to the statistics on Trademap, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and United Kingdom are the top five countries from which Turkey imports “vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and accessories.” (HS Code: 87). In 2017, Germany had a 28% share in Turkey’s vehicles imports, ranking first among five.
According to the Under Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the General Directorate of Imports, the importation of used or reconditioned parts for automobiles and/or vehicles is prohibited in Turkey. The Turkish Government only permits limited importation of used equipment or machinery. Items permitted for importation are listed and published in the official Gazette. Used or reconditioned parts for automobiles and/or vehicles are noticeably absent from this list.
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