Ford Otosan, the joint venture of U.S. automotive giant Ford and Turkey's largest conglomerate Koç Holding, on Wednesday reported a net profit of TL 8.8 billion ($646 million), beating market expectations of TL 6.7 billion, boosted by an upward trend in overseas sales.

The company increased its sales revenues by 44% in 2021 compared to the previous year and reached TL 71.1 billion.

Ford Automotive increased its overseas sales by 57% to TL 54.5 billion and increased its domestic sales by 12% to TL 16.5 billion. The company's operating profit increased by 96% compared to the previous year and reached TL 9.4 billion.

Ford, which sold a total of 361,600 cars in 2021, exported 288,500 of them abroad. While the company's capacity utilization increased by 4 points to 76%, it decreased by 26 points in the fourth quarter compared to the same period of the previous year and became 82%.

An evaluation from the company stated that profitability in 2021 was strong thanks to the strong export performance achieved despite the chip crisis, as well as pricing discipline, cost-reducing measures and effective expense management, exchange rate effect and export agreements.

While the company expects the total automotive market size to be between 800,000 or 850,000 in 2022, it predicts retail sales to be nearly 100,000. The company also predicts exports to reach around 360,000 and investment expenditures to reach 620 to 670 million euros ($705-$761 million).