TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS Transportation and logistics services play a vital role in the Turkish economy due to the dynamism and huge size of the domestic market. Additionally, the rapid integration of the Turkish economy with the rest of the world, mainly with the EU, and increasingly with other countries in the region and deepening commercial relations with the surrounding countries attribute greater significance to the sector. The unique geographical location of Turkey provides a specific advantage for the Turkish transportation and logistics sector in serving and binding the markets between Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. Land transportation and sea transportation have the largest weight in Turkey’s external trade with each having a share of around 45%. Investments in the transportation system concentrate mainly on land transportation. Turkey significantly improved her network of highways with the investments realized recently. The total highway length reached almost 64,000 km., nearly 2,000 km. of which belong to motorways. 95% of passenger transport and 90% of transportation of goods are realized through highway transportation. Turkey has developed one of the largest land transportation fleets in Europe. The number of companies engaged in international transportation and registered within the TIR Carnet system is 1,320. Being surrounded by seas on three sides, sea transportation also has great significance in Turkey’s transportation sector. Main ports are İstanbul, İzmir, İzmit, Samsun, Trabzon, Mersin and İskenderun which own advanced infrastructure and provide modern facilities. Though the international tender process for İzmir, İskenderun, Mersin, Samsun, Derince and Bandırma ports operated by the state were concluded, the transfer to the new owners were not finalized except Mersin anda Samsun Ports. Shipping activity rapidly increased during the 1980’s. The capacity of the Turkish maritime fleet exceeds 7.5 million DWT as of 2009. Turkey has the world’s 26th largest maritime fleet in terms of the number of ships. According to the last 10 years average 87,6% of Turkish foreign trade transportation is realized by maritimes. The importance of Ro-Ro transportation increases rapidly. More than 330.000 Trucks were shipped by Ro-Ro transportation in 2008. (254.401 in 2009 because of global crisis) Existing Ro-Ro lines on which Turkish transportation companies operate are: Haydarpaşa (İstanbul) – Trieste (Italy); Ambarlı (İstanbul) – Trieste; Trieste – Çeşme (İzmir) Çeşme (İzmir) – Trieste; Zonguldak – Odessa (Ukraine); Samsun – Novorossisky (Russian Federation) Samsun – Skadovsk (Ukraine) Trabzon – Sochi (Russian Federation); Rize – Poti (Georgia). Mersin – Magosa (N.Cyprus) Turkey has 38 airports of different sizes open to civil air traffic. The major international terminals are İstanbul Atatürk Airport, Ankara Esenboğa Airport and İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport. The other major flight points are Adana, Trabzon, Nevşehir, Dalaman, Bodrum, Isparta and Antalya. There are 12 international airports open to scheduled traffic whereas number of international airports open to unscheduled and charter flights are 14. On the other hand number of airports open to domestic flighs is 12. Turkish Airlines (THY) is the largest airline company, being run by the state, but included in the privatization program, and capable of connecting all regions with its worldwide network. Today THY is the 3 largest company in Europe according to the the number of passengers carried. The THY fleet is planned to reach 152 by the end of 2010. Further with liberalization in the sector, many private airline companies have been established in recent years. In 2007, the number of arrivals was more than 935.000 and over 1.5 million tons of cargo has been transported by airway transportation. Sea transportation has the greatest share in terms of value with around 47% in Turkey’s total exports. The second most preferred method is land transportation with more than 40%. Air transportation ranks third with a share of slightly more than 6%. Combined transportation and rail transportation have the least shares with 2% and 1% respectively. Maritime transportation has the largest share in terms of value with around 51% in Turkey’s total imports. Land and air transportations rank 2nd and 3rd with a share of 25% and 12% respectively. The share of combined transportation is close to 7%. Although logistic services are relatively new in Turkey, due to its unique location constituting a bridge between Europe, Caucasian and Middle East, Turkey is expected to become a logistics center in the near future. The length of railways is close to 11,000 km, 2,300 of which are electrified. There are ongoing huge projects, outcomes of which will shift the sector to a new era. Seaports are connected to railways, so that combined transportation options are available.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 20:57:26 +0000
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