Tunisian revenues from exports of automobile spare parts increased to TD818 million ($625 million) in 2004 compared to TD483 million ($369 million) in 2000, reported the Qatari newspaper, Al-Watan on August 8. Expenditure on imports of the same products went up also during the same period from TD442 million $337 million in 2000 to TD753 million $575 million in 2004.
There are 186 operating companies in the Tunisian automobile spare parts production sector, of which 14 of them direct all their production to export. These companies offer 28,588 job opportunities.
Total production of this sector hit TD1,256 million ($960 million) in 2004. Some TD555 million ($424 million) of this total were the value of electrical components, which form 44% of the sector output. As for the joint ventures between Tunisian and foreign firms in this sector, their number reached 111 until February 2005, compared to just 44 JVs in 1999.
