Four Turkish ports make it to Lloyd’s top 100 list

ISTANBUL

The Turkish ports of Ambarlı, Kocaeli, Mersin and Tekirdağ ranked in the Lloyd’s 100 ports lists, Transport Minister Abdülkadir Uraloğlu has said.

Ambarlı Port climbed in the ranking from the 74th spot to the 64th spot, the minister said in a statement.

Kocaeli Port, which ranked 89th in the previous year, rose to 85th place, while Mersin Port, which ranked 92nd, rose to 91st place.

Tekirdağ Port, which ranked 100th in the previous list, maintained its place.

Uraloğlu pointed out the “remarkable success in Ambarlı Port's container handling volume.”

Container handling volume at the port rose in line with the growth of Türkiye’s maritime trade in 2023, reaching the highest level in nine years and increasing by 10.6 percent compared to the previous year, he said.

As the country’s maritime trade gathered pace, the number of containers handled in Turkish ports increased by 1.5 percent compared to the previous year and reached 12.6 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) according to the minister.

The highest amount of container handling took place within the boundaries of Ambarlı Regional Port Authority, Uraloğlu said.

In 2023, a total of 3.17 million TEU containers were handled in the facilities operating within the Ambarlı Regional Port Authority, he added.

Last year’s combined throughput tally hit 690.3m TEU, up 0.8 percent from 685.2m TEU on 2022’s elite port performance, Llyod’s said in the report.

Throughout 2023, the fragmentation of volume growth was striking. Yet one core theme remained from the previous year, it added.

“Once again it was the Chinese majors and ports in the Middle East where the lead share of growth was concentrated,” the report said.