Automotive Suppliers' report: record high exports for Polish-made cars

A company that monitors the automotive industry in central and eastern Europe has given a positive assessment of the Polish export industry for 2016, according to its annual report, released to the press on Friday. “The observed dynamics in the first nine months of this year, [allows for] a forecast [of] €23-23.5 billion [PLN 101.75-103.96 billion] throughout 2016 for the value of exports from the Polish automotive industry, for the first time in the history exceeds €23 billion,” the report read, in part. The forecast was based on measurements during Q1-Q3 that saw exports of PLN 75.47 billion. The report stated that, during 2015, Poland's automotive exports were worth PLN 90.69 billion, meaning that exports thus far in 2016 represented an increase of close to 9 percent, y/y. Of the PLN 75.47 billion (Q1-Q3), exports to other EU countries amounted to PLN 64.99 billion and accounted for 86.1 percent of total exports.  Exports outside the EU increased in this period by 25.9 percent, y/y. Among the 10 most important markets, there was a decrease recorded only in exports to the UK, which stood in 4th position, with a decrease of 8.9 percent, y/y. The biggest customer remained Germany, which received 29.9 percent of the total export growth of 4.3 percent. Other major export markets were Italy (9.7 percent, with an export growth of 11.3 percent) and Czechia (8.1 percent increase in exports). The report measured the export of both cargo and passenger vehicles as well as automotive parts and accessories. It emphasized that the trend of export growth has been sustained because of the domination in the sector of export of parts and components, which account for 45 percent of total exports in the industry. The second positive trend was the growing exports of cargo-passenger vehicles, with these two groups accounting for more than 75 percent of total exports, the report stated.