Turkey’s September automotive sector data
Weaker passenger car demand led to a 3 percent decline month on month in Turkey's domestic automotive sales in September. Turkey's Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD) disclosed that the country's domestic automotive sales amounted to 67'103 units in September. Passenger car sales fell 6 percent month on month to 36'936 units in September from 38'644 units in August 2005. Light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales remained almost unchanged at 25'555 last month after a strong performance with 25'363 units in August 2005. Overall automotive sales reached 524'346 units in the first nine months of the year, down 6 percent from 557'980 units a year ago. Although year-on-year comparisons portray a negative drift in sales for the first nine months, the figure is 83 percent higher than the average of the last ten years and indicates a two-fold rise compared to 2003's same period despite the tax hikes and elimination of incentives in the second half of 2004. Furthermore, automotive sales are expected to show a year-on-year rise for the remainder of the year due to the lower base seen in the second half of 2004. In fact, a year-on-year comparison for September shows that sales expanded in all vehicle segments. LCV recorded the highest growth rate of 15 percent, followed by passenger cars with 9 percent and heavy commercial vehicles with 3 percent, all in year on year terms.