Valeo Turkey says it is seeking to up its ratio of domestic suppliers to drive localisation, but cautions against wages rising too fast and eroding the country’s attraction for overseas companies.
The French supplier has four production plants in Turkey and one R&D centre in the automotive heartland of Bursa, around 90min South of Istanbul.
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Among other disciplines, Valeo Turkey is responsible for powertrain and transmission clutch systems, as well as flywheel, hydraulic transmissions and alternators. Valeo exports around 60% of its turnover all around the world, to Europe, but also to the US and Iran.
“[Turkey] is a low-cost base and if you find a good supplier, it is good for Valeo,” Valeo Turkey managing director, Tuna Arinci, told just-auto on the sidelines of the recent Automechanika Istanbul exhibition.
“This is another mission – to find in Turkey and the Middle East low-cost suppliers. When you import it is euro-based and you can not easily get this fluctuation rate from customers. That is why localisation is such a key topic.
“In terms of the supplier base we are 50% localised and 50% others. Of course we need to increase this rate. It is a good opportunity to invest because government gives many incentives.”
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By GlobalDataAs well as being managing director of Valeo Turkey, Arinci is also a board member of Turkish automotive suppliers association, Taysad, headquartered on the Asian side of Istanbul and heading up the unionised labour relations department.
“In Taysad I am responsible for industrial relations – I am head of the working group – we also have spare parts sales and I am working in this group. We have seen difficulties of course, but compared to Europe in terms of industrial relations, we are better, we can find solutions with unions.
“Everybody needs to get more money – I am not against this but we don’t want to lose our competitiveness. Otherwise why would Europe want to come to Turkey? We try to find a balance.
“We need to find a balanced solution, otherwise it is impossible to give more.”
Valeo Turkey also has thermal systems, specialising in HVAC, while it manufactures arm & blade, motor and linkage systems for wipers.
Valeo Service Activity is based in Istanbul and is responsible of distributing all the supplier’s products to Turkey and the Middle East aftermarket.
