Renault to increase production in Turkey on recovering local demand
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ISTANBUL (Bloomberg) -- Renault, whose plant in Turkey makes more than half the cars manufactured in the country, plans to increase local production to take advantage of a market expected to grow slightly compared with last year.
Oyak-Renault Otomobil Fabrikalari AS, a joint venture between Renault and Turkey's military pension fund Oyak Group, will try to use as much as 92 percent of the 360,000 vehicles-a-year capacity at the Bursa plant this year, compared with almost 86 percent in 2012, Tarik Tunalioglu, chief executive of the joint venture, said in a news conference in Istanbul on Tuesday.
"We want to increase production because we are expecting a bigger demand for our new models this year, especially Clio 4," Tunalioglu said. "More than half of our production this year will be the Clio 4 model."
Renault also produces the Fluence and Megane models at the Turkish plant.
Turkish car and van sales are expected to grow about 3 percent to 780,000 this year, said Ibrahim Aybar, chief executive of Renault Mais Motorlu Araclar Imal & Satis AS, the sales joint venture between Renault and Oyak Group.
Turkey's vehicle market suffered last year after a September tax increase on cars combined with slower economic growth to curb consumer demand.
Market share
Renault's 2012 sales in Turkey were $4.2 billion, Tunalioglu said, without giving a year-on-year comparison. Exports fell slightly to $3.15 billion from $3.21 billion in 2011.
Renault Mais, which also imports Renault's low-cost Dacia brand, plans to introduce new models in Turkey in order to boost sales, Aybar said.
"We want to increase our market share in Turkey this year from 13.1 percent in 2012," he added.
Renault will start selling nine new models in the Turkish market this year including the Scenic, Latitude, Dacia Sandero and electric Zoe, Aybar said.
In 2013, Renault plans to invest 55 million euros ($73 million) in the Bursa plant, compared with $212 million last year, Tunalioglu said.
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