The Turkish automotive industry kicked off the new year achieving its highest January export with nearly $2.78 billion (TL 85.6 billion), a 2.5% rise when compared to the same month a year ago, data from the Uludağ Automotive Industry Exporters' Association (OIB) showed Tuesday.
The share of the sector, which holds the top position in the country's exports, accounted for 16.2% of all shipments realized.
In January, the highest external sales, with a 3% surge compared to the same month a year earlier, amounted to $1.17 billion in the "supply industry" product group.
Exports of passenger cars decreased by 13% to $772.89 million while exports of motor vehicles for the transport of goods increased by 27% to $504.66 million. At the same time, exports in bus-minibus-midibus exports rose by 61% to $160.7 million while tractor exports dove by 10% to $139.89 million.
The country's overall exports last month hit a record level for January with $20.03 billion, increasing by 3.6% on a yearly basis, the trade minister announced on Friday.
In January, the largest market of the Turkish automotive sector was Germany with exports at $417 million. It was followed by the United Kingdom at $333 million, showing an increase of 11% year-over-year.
Exports to France, the third largest market saw a decline of 4% to $272 million, according to the data. Last month, significant export increases were recorded for Italy (31%), Slovenia (19%), Romania (19%), Morocco (39%), Portugal (41%) and Algeria (424%).
Meanwhile, an increase of 1% was observed in exports to EU countries in the same period, respectively.
Exports to the European Union, which took the lead in the country group with a 67.5% share in total exports surged slightly to $1.87 billion. At the same time, exports in the group classified as "other European countries," picked up by 12%, while exports to Africa were up by 35%.
"We reached the highest January export in the history of the sector at the beginning of the year," said Baran Çelik, chairperson of the OIB board of directors.
"Exports of motor vehicles for the transport of goods and buses-minibuses-midibuses increased by double digits. We recorded high percentage increases in Italy, Slovenia and Romania," he said.
While the automotive sector's exports posted significant overall increases, the recent industry data indicated that vehicle sales also remained strong in January, adding to momentum observed throughout last year.
Nearly 80,000 passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold across the country last month, marking a 56.6% year-over-year rise, the data from the Automotive Distributors' and Mobility Association (ODMD) showed last week.
Passenger car sales surged 71.7% annually to 64,041 in January, while the light commercial market expanded by 15.1% from a year earlier with 15,660 units sold.
Nearly 10,206 hybrid cars and 3,973 electric cars were sold in Türkiye in the first month of 2024, making 16% and 6.2% of total automobile sales, respectively.