Turkish authorities are set to announce an agreement with Chinese automaker BYD Co. to build a $1 billion company facility in the country, Bloomberg reported.
According to the agency’s sources, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will announce it on Monday at a ceremony in Manisa province, where the plant is planned to be built.
The opening of the plant in Turkey could make it easier for BYD, China’s largest electric car maker, to access the European Union market, with which the country has a customs agreement.
The day before, the European Commission imposed additional duties on imports of Chinese electric cars into the EU. For BYD Co. this duty amounts to 17.4%. Previously, the EU already had 10% duties on imports of electric cars from China.
The Turkish market is also of interest to BYD. Last year, cars with electric engines accounted for 7.5% of car sales in Turkey.
On Friday, it became known that the Turkish authorities refused to introduce an additional duty of 40% on imports of Chinese electric cars into the country, which was announced in June. This came after Erdogan’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders’ meeting in Astana.
