Automotive companies which widely use railway in USA and Europe increase railway usage in Turkey too.

Here are automotive companies which use railway for inbound and/or outboung logistics:

BMW

BMWs are coming to Turkey by train since last year. BMW train has a weekly frequency departing from Schwertberg, Austria and arriving to Tekirdag Port. Rail Cargo is organizing the traction of this train. A weekly train means about one third of BMW’s total imports (26k in 2014) to Turkey.

Mercedes

Mercedes has recently started to use rail for imports to Turkey from Bremen, Germany. Kosekoy Terminal is started to be used for this. DB Schenker Rail is organizing the traction. Almost half of the passenger cars will have come by rail if weekly trains achieved (2014 sales is 23k).

Hyundai

Hyundai did trail runs last year from Czech Republic, and TCDD announced in its website that Hyundai trains wil start running in both directions soon. DB Schenker Rail organized traction in trial run. Hyundai had 22k imports and 180k exports to/from Turkey.

Dacia

In 2014, 28k cars of Dacia had been imported to Turkey. Omsan Logistics had announced in 2014 the target of bringing 30k Dacia cars to Turkey by train+vessel solution via Constanta. Omsan had also done trial runs with direct rail transport to Turkey from Romania, but they did not continue.

Renault

Although having done some trial runs, Renault did not continue using railway for finished vehicles. On the other hand, Renault has shifted to rail for spare parts. Spare parts are being carried by swapbody block trains running between Noisy, France and Derince, Turkey. Target is to run 4 block train in each direction. Renault has totally produced 318k passenger cars last year.

Ford

Ford had leaded the usage of railway in Turkey for a long time for spare parts from Germany to Turkey. Ford is now using trailer train+roro solution via Trieste. Direct rail to Turkey by trailer train is also being tested. Ford has produced 245k in total including trucks in 2014.

Toyata

Toyota is using container trains for spare parts from Europe for a long time. Toyota’s production was 132k passenger cars last year.

Skoda

Skoda was one of the brands trying rail transport to Turkey at the beginning of 2014 but did not continue. In 2014, 15k Skoda passenger cars were imported to Turkey.