Turkey urged to develop its shipping infrastructure

Turkey urged to develop its shipping infrastructure

Three new seaports will become the government’s priority infrastructure projects in the coming years, according to recent discussions among attendees at the International Port Finance conference in Istanbul.

Three new sea ports – one in Çandarlı, in the Aegean province of İzmir, one in Mersin and the other in Filyos, in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak – are being seen as steps to help boost Turkey’s shipping status.

“Turkey needs to develop its shipping infrastructure,” Ekrem Karademir, a planning expert at the Department for Infrastructure and Services, State Planning Organization, said during the two day meeting, which started Wednesday and ended Thursday.

“Some 95 percent of domestic passengers and 92 percent of freight is done by road, whereas the European Union average is 83 percent and 46 percent,” he said.

Karademir, who also works with the EU to conduct the Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment, or TINA, in Turkey, said the feasibility studies for Çandarlı and Mersin ports projects have already been completed and the one for Filyos will be finished later this year.

The Çandarlı port, which has a tentative investment value of 185 million euros, will compensate for the current insufficient berth depth of the Izmir Port.

The Mersin Container Port, with an initial investment value of 370 million euros, will serve as a gateway to Middle Eastern countries, the Caucasus, landlocked Asian countries and countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The Filyos Port, meanwhile, will have an investment value of 500 million euros and will act as a gateway to Central Anatolia. At the same time, it is expected to ease freight traffic handled at Istanbul and provide additional capacity on the Black Sea coast.

The first stages of the Çandarlı port and the Mersin Container Port are expected to be finished by 2014.

“However, the biggest bottleneck will be the financial procurement to build these ports,” said Ülker Yetkin, head of the Survey of Port Projects Department at the General Directorate of Railways, Ports, and Airport Construction, or DLH.

She also said the commencements of the new ports will be pending on EU grants and the projects need to seek alternative funding through a public-private partnership.

Currently, many ports are developed in Turkey by means of transferring operation rights through privatization – generally through a build-operate-transfer, or BOT, model, and by launching private greenfield projects through licensing and permits.

Such projects, however, have achieved mixed success.

“The government has a very important role to play in port development,” said Marten van den Bossche, chairman of ECORYS Nederland BV.

The three new ports, once completed, will be part of an extension of the trans-European transport network, or TEN-T, into Turkey. The growth in traffic between EU member states is expected to double by 2020 as Turkey plays an important role in the interconnection between the EU, the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black seas.

Turkey’s container traffic grew five times between 2001 and 2009; although there are more than 200 ports around the country, many small-scale ports and piers can only handle low amounts of cargo.

Although the three new port projects are expected to create some scales in the sector, some private sector representatives have voiced their concerns, saying the sector already has overcapacity.

The recent financial crisis has significantly hurt the global shipping business, yet most participants at the Istanbul conference are still optimistic on Turkey’s shipping future. “In Turkey, the game has just opened; it is like Brazil five years ago,” said Ghislain Lorthiois, principal of the Port Fund.

Turkey’s economy is expected to grow 5 percent this year, according to a recent statement by the World Bank’s country director, Ulrich Zachau.

Bron: Hurriyet Daily News
Datum: 16 april 2010