The exports of the Turkish automotive industry remained at $1.5 billion (TL 11 billion) in August, the Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters' Association (OIB) announced Monday.
According to the statement, the outbreak of the coronavirus affected Turkey's automotive industry's exports as well as its maintenance and repair activities in the factories.
These factors caused a decrease in August exports by 11% compared to the same period last year. The industry ranks second in Turkey’s exports with a 12% share. The January-July exports of the sector hit $14.5 billion.
The automotive supply industry exports totaled $729 million with $406 million in passenger cars, $237 million in cargo vehicles (vehicles used for transportation of goods) and $79 million for buses, minibuses and midibuses.
The coronavirus pandemic brought along an abrupt drop in activity and a halt in production, which dealt a heavy blow to the car market, especially in March and April. With lockdown measures imposed to combat the spread of the virus and dampening consumer confidence, sales nosedived. Still, Turkey managed to make it through the crisis less affected than other countries.
Germany, the country with the most exports in the supply industry, saw an 8.9% increase in August, while exports to France, which ranked second, increased by 10%, and to Italy 26%. There was an increase of 8% in exports to the U.S., 27% to Romania and 23% to Spain, while the sector experienced an 8% decrease in exports to the U.K. Around a 56% increase in exports to Morocco was noteworthy in August.
Turkey saw high demand in the domestic market, which was followed by a significant rise in June on the back of the easing of strict coronavirus lockdown measures in the country and cheap loan packages offered by public banks. Passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales in Turkey jumped by 66% year-on-year in June to 70,973 units, according to the Automotive Distributors Association (ODD). Passenger car sales were up 58.4% to 57,067 and light commercial vehicle sales soared 108.7% year-on-year to 13,906 in the month.