Maritime boost expected

The Turkish maritime sector has the potential to experience considerable growth in the future as the world recovers from the current turbulence, Martens van den Bossche, general manager of the ECORYS Netherlands Group, said yesterday in Istanbul.

Speaking at Port Finance International Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean Conference in Istanbul, van den Bossche said more than 300 new port terminals are needed in eastern Mediterranean by 2012. Some 10 or 15 of these are likely to be in Turkey and some 15 or 25 in Greece.

"Long-term forecasts show that the maritime sector in Turkey and the nearby region will experience considerable growth by 2020," he said. "Turkey is a large emerging market with 70 million consumers. The economies around it, like Egypt and Russia and the Black Sea region, are bound to grow. This will mean the growth of the maritime sector and the number of ports."

According to van den Bossche, the two main developments boosting growth and potential of the maritime sector in Turkey and eastern Mediterranean are growth of gross domestic products and closer relations with the European Union. "The growth of GDP in Turkey will mean citizens will get richer and buy more, and a lot of these products will arrive in containers," he said.

Trade relations
"Furthermore, whatever the eventual outcome of Turkey’s membership process with the EU is, relations between the EU and Turkey will intensify and bilateral trade will increase. The two most important trade partners of the EU already are Russia and Turkey. These relationships will be further reinforced in the future," van den Bossche said. In the next 10 years, the Mediterranean needs two new hub ports, according to van den Bossche.

"The question now is where these will be. Sicily and Malta are potential locations, but so are places at a location with hinterland, for example Barcelona, Genova and the area around the Bosphorus," he said, adding that Turkey has an advantage as it is located at the point of entry to the Black Sea region. "Volumes in Black Sea harbors are not high enough yet to make sure development can take place in this area," van den Bossche said. Port capacity in Turkey is reaching its limits. The country’s 170 ports have a total capacity of 350-370 million tons, whereas some 314 million tons were handled in 2008. Exports accounted for 23 percent of this volume, while imports accounted for 48 percent, domestic cabotage 12 percent and transit goods 16 percent.

"The question is where and how this capacity can be expanded," van den Bossche said. Özgür Kalelioğlu, port services group manager at Arkas Holding, said he hopes the takeover bid of İzmir port will soon be finalized. A consortium consisting of Hutchinson Port Holdings, Global Yatırım Holding and EIB Limaş won the bid for 49 years in May 2007, but the takeover has been hampered by legal disputes. "İzmir is the main export hub of Turkey and we need a dedicated terminal there."

Kalelioğlu agreed on the future potentials of the Black Sea region for maritime investors. "Several firms are currently looking for investments in the Black Sea region. The existing ports are not answering the needs of liners. This region is one of the major transhipment hubs in the eastern Mediterranean. In the future, traffic from Iraq will increase volumes in ports of southern Turkey too," he said. Turkish container market throughput grew from 4.7 million twenty-foot equivalent unit, or TEU, in 2007 to 5.2 million TEU in 2008. The acronym describes the capacity of container ships and container terminals.