Page 47 - TURKRptDec20
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8.0 Industry & Sectors 8.1 Sector news
8.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Turkey's natural gas imports increased by 6.5% to around 3.35bn cubic metres (bcm) in August, according to year on year data from Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) published on October 29.
Some 2.76 bcm of the natural gas was imported via pipelines, while 591mn cubic metres (mcm) was purchased as liquefied natural gas (LNG), EPDK's figures also showed. Pipeline imports were up 17.7% while a 26.1% decline for LNG imports was recorded. Russia was the top gas supplier, at 1.37 bcm. Azerbaijan and Iran followed with 986 mcm and 406 mcm, respectively.
Gas imports from Azerbaijan and Iran grew by 34% and 152%, respectively, while the volume of Russian imports fell by 5.5%.
Turkey's total gas consumption increased by 19.5% to approximately 3.05 bcm in August, the regulator added. Household consumption grew by 7.8% reaching 274 mcm while gas usage by power plants rose by 45% to 1.28 bcm.
The amount of natural gas in storage in August decreased by 12.9% to around 2.43 bcm.
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the third and final section of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGS) network designed to bring Azeri gas to southern Europe, is now ready to start flowing.
8.1.2 Automotive sector news
Combined sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in Turkey increased by 93% y/y to 95,000 units in October, the Auto Distributors’ Association (ODD) said.
Passenger car sales rose by 91% to 76,341 units while LCV sales jumped nearly 103% y/y to 18,400 units.
From January to October, Turkey’s automotive market expanded at 78.1% compared with the same period of 2019 as a total of 588,354 vehicles were sold on the local market. Passenger car sales increased by 73.1% to 465,031 and LCV sales rose 99.7% to 123,323.
In light of the latest data, the ODD upgraded its forecast for the local market for 2020. The association said it expected total vehicle sales to be between 725,000 and 775,000 this year, up from its previous estimate of 700,000-750,000 units.
Turkey’s automakers produced 151,000 passenger cars and commercial vehicles in October, marking a 14.1% increase from a year ago, trade association OSD reported.
In the first 10 months of the year, the automotive industry’s total output declined by 11.4% on an annual basis to 1.3mn units. The sector’s total export revenues declined 17.6% y/y to $25.7bn in the first 10 months.
Data from OSD also showed that despite the sharp depreciation of the Turkish
47 TURKEY Country Report December 2020 www.intellinews.com
