COUNTRY REPORTTURKEY
related, and admittedly suffering at present), with similarities in language, history and culture all contributing to success. Many Turkish contractors and rental companies have built up their business in the CIS countries, where risks are high and Western contractors tend to stay away, noted Basakıncı. Of course: “When there is high risk there is usually a higher return. This is also why we decided to follow the Turkish companies and settled in the CIS to become local, specifically in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan,” he said.
Fertiliser plant As an agent for Terex, Das Oto places cranes in numerous locations, including the CIS. An example within Turkey was the use of a CC6800 1,250-tonne capacity crane by Sarilar to lift a lid at a fertiliser plant. This year, Kita Logistics has moved
production plant shipments from Europe to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, while Bati Group operates two seagoing river-type vessels from the Marmara Sea to the Caspian Sea by the Volga and Don rivers. It also has an office in Mersin and Iskenderun, Turkey, where it carries out transit Customs clearance and trucking to Iraq and Iran. During 2016, Kita Logistics was involved
in large-scale cement and refinery projects in north and south Iraq. It shipped close to 2,000 truckloads to various destinations within Iraq from Turkey and also in transit
A call for more privatisation
“Turkey is a logistics hub, considering that it acts as a bridge connecting the East and the West and that it is a piece of land surrounded by water – the Black, Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas,” observed Vanessa Medini, board member at Medden Shipping. “It has a coastline of 8,484 km, which includes 1,013 coastal facilities – of which only 209 are currently being operated. This number needs to increase for the country to attract more cargo.” Medini said there is a lack of ro-ro handling
facilities and terminals geared for handling project cargo. “We need more storage areas together with high capacity shore cranes. Unfortunately, most ports do not have enough equipment and we have to hire cranes from third parties.” She suggested that privatisation is the best way
to develop the country’s ports. “The privatisation of ports is beneficial as the owners improve the infrastructure and invest in new equipment that expands cargo handling capacity.” Medini added that railroad infrastructure is
128 January/February 2017
Vanessa Medini: The privatisation of ports is beneficial as the owners improve infrastructure and invest in equipment.
severely under-developed in Turkey, accounting for just 1 percent of foreign trade handled in the country. “Our government is trying to improve this situation by constructing railroads and buying wagons, but we need more investment to connect railroads to ports and terminals in order to increase
Project Cargo Network (PCN) member Ekin Heavy & Project Cargo Transportation delivered seven transformers 2,000 km overland from Turkey to Georgia.
via Mersin and Iskenderun. “2017 for us will start with mining projects and our transports to Iraq will continue,” Eldener said. “We expect 2017 to be a better year than 2016.” Overall, Medini is positive: “Despite the
economic uncertainties in Turkey, our government continues to develop projects and support investments that will enhance the infrastructure in the country. “Ports are privatised, roads are modified
to facilitate the transportation of heavy lift and project cargo, bridges are built for faster
delivery, and airports are constructed in rural areas, feeding the need for logistics. “In addition, R&D in oil and gas is
promoted, and companies are encouraged to invest in building wind, hydroelectric, thermal and solar power plants in order to minimise the dependency on energy import from other countries. All these are executed to become less dependable, more sustainable, to decrease the country’s current account deficit and boost the economy,” she summed up.
the amount of trade within and outside the country, especially with the Caspian region. “Turkey and the CIS countries have a volume of
USD9 billion in export and USD3.4 billion in import (excluding oil and gas). A total of 82 percent of this trade in 2015 was moved by road, 8.3 percent by sea and 7.4 percent by air. As you can tell from these numbers, railroad privatisation is certainly needed to promote this method of transportation.” “China, on the other hand, wants to ship the
cargo it produces in the western part of its territory to Europe by rail. The Caspian Transit Corridor is the safest route for this. Russia was an option after Kazakhstan but its interference in Crimea and its attitude towards Syria and Iran is causing China to look at other alternatives. “If the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway project
had been completed, we would have had the chance to ship cargo from Istanbul and Mersin to all around the world. Turkey is losing transit cargo to Poti [Georgia] every day because of this. “There are alternative projects and I am afraid
that if we are not quick enough, these alternative routes will become more attractive to both investors and our clients,” she concluded.
www.heavyliftpfi.com
HLPFI
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