Turkey's TurkTraktor rolls off 400,000th engine

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish tractor manufacturer TurkTraktor, a joint venture between CNHI and Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding, celebrated a major milestone Friday when its 400,000th engine rolled off the assembly line.

Sixty-two years after the company was established, the 400,000th tractor engine, which has 98 HP. power, 4 cylinder diesel engines, Turbo & Intercooler, Tier-3 emission environment friendly, 370 Nm. max. tork model, was assembled at the company’s manufacturing facility in Turkish capital Ankara.

"400,000 engines, more than 22 years of experience, and more than 400,000 times you have experience with machine and building engines -- this makes you an expert in building the engine," said Tom Verbaeten, the vice president Europe operations agricultural at CNHI.

"Engines and drivelines are the hearts of tractors. The heart of a tractor is like your heart. It needs to be zero failure, durable, and zero leakage," said Verbaeten. "From a plant like this we can only expect perfect quality. Use your expertise to build the next 400,000 engines and drivelines with perfect quality."

"Turkish Tractor was born in 1944 as a factory for aircraft engines and then converted into a factory for tractors in 1954," Marco Votta, the company’s CEO, told Anadolu Agency. "In 1977, we started the manufacturing engines for tractors. So we have been the first producing the engines for agricultural tractors and by now TurkTraktor produces by itself almost everything on the tractors. Today, the company produces 50,000 tractors each year at two plants."

Votta said that the company, which has produced 750,000 tractors over the last 62 years, is Turkey’s biggest tractor producer.

TurkTraktor, which manufactures tractors, engines, transmissions, and front and rear axles, among more than 40 competitors is the biggest tractor producer in Turkey, representing 71 percent share of the Turkish production market, Votta added.

Votta noted that the company performs 91 percent of Turkey’s total tractor exports. "As one of Turkey’s largest exporters, we are selling 1/3 of our turnover outside Turkey to more than 130 countries, including the U.S. and Japan."

The mechanization rate in Turkey’s agricultural sector is steadily growing. The number of tractors in the country has reach to 1.6 million tractors.

"The demand led us to open our second factory in the country," Votta said.

Turkey is one of the largest agricultural producers in Europe, and the fourth-biggest tractor market by units in the world, said Votta.

The Turkish government has been encouraging, coming through with subsidies and programs to support demand, as Turkey is the world's seventh-largest agricultural economy overall, and exports 1,707 kinds of agricultural products, with exports last year alone worth $16.8 billion.

Votta said the government's incentive, which was almost 15 billion liras in 2015 ($5.5 billion), is stable, and does not vary with shifting political winds.

"With the stability, farmers have confidence to invest more. This is important for tractor producers like us and farmers," Votta said.

Meanwhile, TurkTraktor’s turnover also rose 14 percent in 2015 over the previous year to reach 3.103 billion lira ($1.06 billion)

“The reason for this increase comes from demand in the domestic market,” said Votta.