Turkish and Russian auto industry representatives have agreed to boost trade despite the COVID-19 pandemic. During the online forum "the Russia Automotive Digital Sectoral Trade Delegation," which ended on Friday, representatives of 26 Turkish and 45 Russian automotive firms held around 200 meetings on how to overcome the shocks of the pandemic, said Turkey's Uludag Automotive Industry Exporters' Association. "Russia is one of our most important foreign trade partners in the automotive industry," said Baran Celik, head of the association, adding that Turkey's automotive sector has targeted 30 billion U.S. dollars in exports this year.
Celik noted that Turkey's exports to Russia increased to 1.1 billion dollars in 2013, "but in 2020, this figure dropped to 468 million dollars." The pandemic has caused "unprecedented losses" in the sector, especially in the first half of 2020, and the sector is facing new challenges this year, such as chip and raw material shortages, and rising commodity prices, he said. Still, Celik believes that "trade between Turkey and Russia will increase" in the coming years.