Turkish auto industry output rose 97.5% year on year in January to 76,565 units according to Otomotiv Sanayii Dernegi (OSD), the Turkish automotive manufacturers association. It is, however, forecasting full-year output down 15.4% to 907,395.
Passenger car output rose 96.4% last month to 46,810 units and OSD predicted full-year volume would be down 8.6% to 533,903 for all of 2010.
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January new vehicle sales rose 2% to 21,047 with passenger car sales off 4.4% to 12,594. Full-year forecasts were 576,285 (up 12.3%) and 369,240 (+22.8%).
Turkey imported 12,264 new vehicles in January, up 10.5%; 8,805 were cars (up 9.5%).
On the other side of the ledger, exports rose 86.2% to 59,999 and 37,418 of those were passenger cars (up 94.3%).
Turkey is a major export hub for Toyota (Corolla sedan and Verso mainly for Europe) and Ford (Transit Connect, now also shipped to the US) and also home to large Fiat and Renault operations that export widely. Honda and Hyundai also have significant facilities there.
OSD is, however, predicting full-year export volume will be off 23% to 656,764 with passenger cars down 17.8% to 407,159.
