Manfacuring in Turkish Automotive Industry
Automotive industry related to the manufacturing of motor vehicles is a global and comprehensive industry. Around 20 companies of 6 countries in the world dominate more than 90% of the industry and trade. Therefore, the production method and technology in this industry is also global. Turkey does not own its own brand in the automotive industry, thus is developing around the investments of the global investors. Following the 90s, Turkey started investments for exportation, together with the foreign investments. Hence, it benefited from what it has done, in no time. (Anonim, 2007). Considering the last 50 years in Turkey, Turkish automotive industry capable of manufacturing around 10 thousand vehicles only in 1960 exceeded the limit of 100 thousand in 1970s. In 1980s, the production, which almost reached the limit of 200 thousand vehicles, went beyond 400 thousand in 1993. In the 2000s, Turkey went beyond the threshold of 500 thousand vehicles and it even became one of the major manufacturers in Europe with more than 1 million productions since 2005. Considering the data of the recent years, it is seen that the automotive industry is one of the most important parts of the national economy in many fields, from production to employment to import and export. 2005-2014 data of Turkish automotive industry production is shown in Table 7. The Turkish automotive sector, with a tendency to rise in general terms, has shown a very serious decrease in 2009 by 5%. This statistical data can be one of the indicators that Turkey sustained a significant damage from the economic crisis, which was told by the politicians, have touched us slightly. Although there are fluctuations between the years mentioned in the table, it can be said that the Turkish automotive sector is on the rise. The types of the vehicles given in numbers in Table 7 are as follows: cars, trucks, vans, buses, minibuses, midibuses, tractors. Among these items, the highest production belongs to automobiles, while the least production is midibus.