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Quick on the uptake


Turkey is proving popular with traders who need faster supply lines than sclerotic deepsea routes can currently provide.


No longer the sick man of Europe as economy stages strong Covid recovery


The Covid crisis has inevitably affected Turkey’s economic performance, along with the rest of the world, but that short-term blip needs to be put into context. As the World Bank stated in its report on the country in October


2020, Turkey’s economic and social development performance since 2000 has been impressive, and economists now consider it to be an upper-middle-income country. No longer the Sick Man of Europe, poverty in Turkey more


than halved over 2002–15, and extreme poverty fell even faster. Government programs have


targeted vulnerable groups and disadvantaged regions, at the same time as handling an influx of around 3.6 million Syrian refugees


- a model to other countries facing similar issues, says the World Bank. The country also urbanised


dramatically – greater Istanbul is, at around 14 million people, arguably, Europe’s largest metropolis –


has moved from Asia to Turkey. Added to this is the massive increase in ocean rates from China, so we expect our clients’ forecast for 2021 to increase yet again.” Turkey offers much more


The well-publicised problems in UK deepsea ports has given a boost to traffic from Turkey, says Davies Turner director, Alan Williams. Compared with the Far East, the country can offer fast response times for goods such as fashion and while it may have somewhat higher labour costs than, say, Bangladesh, shipping costs are lower,


especially now that freight rates from the Far East have surged to over $6-7,000 for a 40’ box. Turkey also has the


advantage that it is self-sufficient in cotton and, with the upsurge of working from home, people are buying casual clothes made from this material rather than formal suits and ties. Moreover, during the


pandemic and lockdown, consumers turned to online buying as never before and, as Williams says,


to serve such


a fast-changing market, “from Turkey you can react so much more quickly”. He adds: “The move to a more


casual at home look has seen volumes for our larger clients in some cases treble as production


consistent journey times than Asia, especially now that containers can spend weeks or days stuck in UK or continental ports.


While there can be some


border delays between Turkey and Bulgaria, Davies Turner has side-stepped these by using the ferry service from Istanbul to Trieste in Italy operated by its


opened up to foreign trade and finance and harmonised many laws and regulations with the European Union. It also recovered well from the previous global crisis of 2008/09. Nevertheless, the World Bank


does see economic problems ahead, and perhaps rather more deep-seated ones than those resulting from the Covid crisis. There has been a slow-down


partner Ekol, with rail links on to Northern Europe and truck for the final leg into the UK. With Brexit looming, Davies


Turner UK is looking to take over the final leg of the movement from Northwest Europe to the UK. Williams explains: “This will see us using the Channel ports a lot less and moving to regional options such as Tilbury and Hull, meaning we can clear on entry, as well as adding a drop and swap option for larger clients, allowing a much more flexible service to our clients and helping us combat the lack of HGV 1 drivers in Europe.”


in implementing reforms in recent years that, together with economic vulnerabilities, risks reversing some of the progress made. There is also rising inflation


and unemployment, contracting and patchy implementation of corrective policy, while ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region have added to the economic headwinds.


Tilbury, where Forth Ports


has recently opened a large new ro ro terminal servicing ferries from Zeebrugge, would in many ways be an ideal entry point to the UK, except that customs hours are currently rather restricted compared with Dover, where customs is manned 24 hours. Trailers arriving on Friday cannot currently move until the following Monday. However there are hopes that customs hours will soon be extended to a seven days a week operation, which would greatly increase T i


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