Turkey’s robust economic performance is contributing to a healthy business environment for its components industry. according to its national supplier association.
Addressing media at the EquipAuto exhibition in Paris, board member of the Turkish automotive industry exports association (ULUDAG) Cengiz Kabatepe, said it was sub-suppliers who were feeling the benefit.
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“Around one third of the Turkish automotive industry exports are being realised by Turkish sub-suppliers,” he said. “This is passenger car business, mini-buses and transport vehicles – hopefully 1.2m vehicles by the end of this year.
“The supplier industry mostly supplies to the Euro 27 countries [as well as] regional countries such as Iraq, Iran and Russia. “There are nearly 4,000 small and medium [supplier] enterprises in Turkey – 200 of them foreign with nearly 200,000 qualified workers and US$7bn exports in 2010.”
Citing worker flexibility and a beneficial geographical position straddling Europe and Asia, Kabatepe added other areas were being targeted such as the Middle East and Asia.
Some 85% of Turkish suppliers are family businesses, while an estimated EUR10bn spend on research and development by 2013 was evidence of a “big strategic support from the government,” he said.
