Syrian shippers scale up market share in Turkey
Servet Yeşilyurt – Hürriyet Daily News
Syrian transporters seem to benefit from the recent Turkish-Syrian political dispute, while local transporters increasingly feel the pinch.“Syrian transporter’s market share in Turkey has increased, as there is no limit to bilateral transport,” Engin Özmen, president of Turkey’s International Transporters Association, told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.
An average of 7,500 trucks used make entry to Syria and to the other Middle East countries through Syria from Turkey, he said, adding that the figure plunged down to about 1,500, due to Syrian government’s Jan. 4 decisions. The number of Syrian trucks entering Turkey on the other hand has risen to 1,500 from a mere 400.
The Syrian government decided on Jan. 4 to impose a 30 percent customs tariff on all Turkish goods imported into the country as well as a levy of 80 Syrian Pounds ($1.60) per liter of gas oil used by Turkish vehicles leaving the country.
“Previously a large volume of Turkish cement was transported to Syria. Now it totally stopped,” Özmen said, adding that 300 transport company in Turkey’s southeast in serious distress.
