Tag: Renault

Renault SA (RNO), 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 today.

“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.”

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 total vehicle market contracted 11.5 percent 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 produces sedan models of Fluence, Clio 4 and Megane at the Turkish plant.

Renault Mais, which also sells imported Dacia models, expects to introduce new models in Turkey in order to increase sales from 118,000 units last year, Aybar said. “We want to increase our market share in Turkey this year from 13.1 percent in 2012,” he said.

Renault will start selling nine new models in the Turkish market this year including Scenic, Latitude, Dacia Sandero and electric vehicle Zoe, Aybar said.

Oyak-Renault will continue its three-shift production at the plant, Tunalioglu said, while competitor Tofas Turk Otomobil Fabrikasi AS (TOASO), a joint venture made up of Fiat SpA (F) and Koc Holding AS (KCHOL), said Jan. 2 it will cut shifts to two because of weak demand from European markets.

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Honda Motor Co. (7267) and Hyundai Motor Co. (005380) are among manufacturers of cars, vans, trucks and buses that sell local and imported brands in Turkey. The country’s total motor vehicle sales fell to 815,000 units in 2012, said Mustafa Bayraktar, head of Turkey’s Car Distributors’ Association.

Renault will invest 55 million euros ($73 million) in the Bursa plant, compared with $212 million last year, Tunalioglu said.

via Renault to Increase Turkey Production on Recovering Local Demand – Bloomberg.

A cameraman is silhouetted as he films on the Renault booth during the first media day of the Geneva Auto Show at the Palexpo in Geneva (Valentin Flauraud Reuters, REUTERS / March 6, 2012)

Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume Reuters

3:26 a.m. CDT, October 5, 2012

PARIS (Reuters) – French automaker Renault plans to build more than 70 percent of its Clio subcompacts in Turkey, union sources said, in a shift abroad that could inflame tensions with workers and the government, its biggest shareholder.

During internal presentations, Renault disclosed plans to source less than 30 percent of the new Clio model from France, according to two union officials who declined to be identified.

“This was presented as a decision,” one of the sources said.

A Renault spokesman declined to comment on production plans for the fourth-generation Clio, France’s second-bestselling car this year. Some 41 percent of its last version were built domestically, with 46 percent sourced from Turkey and 13 percent from Spain.

With unemployment at a 13-year high, French President Francois Hollande’s government has pledged to reverse the trend within a year and is already pressuring high-profile companies such as ArcelorMittal and Sanofi to keep jobs in France.

Domestic plants accounted for 42 percent of Renault’s overall European deliveries last year. That compares with 64 percent for rival PSA Peugeot Citroen , which drew ministerial wrath by announcing 8,000 job cuts and a plant closure earlier this year.

Renault’s gradual transfer of production to lower-wage economies has already proved to be a sore point in relations with the French state, which owns 15 percent of the automaker.

Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn was summoned for a public dressing-down by former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010, after reports first emerged that the Clio could move abroad.

Renault responded at the time with a pledge to maintain production levels in Flins, west of Paris, until output of its Zoe electric cars had ramped up to take the Clio’s place.

But the shift to Turkey is going ahead, the sources said, even as Zoe manufacturing volumes remain an unknown – with deliveries not due to start until early next year.

“There’s no visibility on how many Zoes they’re going to produce – and it’s unclear who’s buying them at this stage,” London-based UBS analyst Philippe Houchois said.

“They’re obviously under pressure and may have to decide whether to build more (Clios) in France to keep the peace with the government.”

Sales of electric cars including Japanese affiliate Nissan’s Leaf have so far failed to meet expectations.

Paris-based Peugeot has also halted the supply of re-badged electric cars from Mitsubishi Motors to run down its stock of unsold vehicles.

Renault is also asking its unions for nationwide concessions on pay and conditions to avert mass layoffs of the kind announced by Peugeot, Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares said last week in an interview at the Paris auto show.

Deliveries of the new Clio were set to begin as the car makes its public debut at the show, which runs until October 14.

(Editing by James Regan)

via Renault to shift more production to Turkey: sources – chicagotribune.com.