Turkish auto firms recovering

Ercan Tezer who is secretary-general of the Automotive Manufacturers Association said “Turkish automotive sector, which produced 870,000 units last year, is expected to increase its production to 900,000 or even 1 million units by the end of 2010.

Speaking to journalists during a visit to Bursa earlier this week, Ercan Tezer said sales in Turkey and in many countries, were hit hard by the global crisis, which led to a consumer tendency to delay purchases. Tezer said the total production in the world automotive sector retreated by 13 percent last year.

“Worldwide production in 2007 was 73 million units. It retreated to 70 million units in 2008 and to 61 million units in 2009.In Turkey, production increased 3.3 times between 2002 and 2008, reaching 1.1 million units, which receded to 870,000 last year. As opposed to these figures, we saw spectacular production increases in China, India and Iran. Particularly China topped the list with a 48-percent increase and a production of 13.8 million units.” Tezer said.

Basing his evaluation on these figures, Tezer predicted production would largely move to Asia in the future. “Overall motor vehicle production in the world will be 62 million units this year, 64 million units for 2011 and 67 million units in 2012,” he said.