Gulf of Izmit Ports Welcomed 9,560 Cargo Ships Last Year
The General Directorate of Maritime Affairs has released data showing that 60,195 ships arrived at ports in Turkey last year. Among these ports, the Izmit Gulf ports, under the duty area of the Kocaeli Port Authority, stood out with the arrival of 9,560 ships.
Of the ships that arrived in Kocaeli, 2,875 were Turkish flagged while 6,685 were foreign flagged. The total weight of these ships was recorded at 170,789,000 gross tons. Aliağa Port Authority ranked second with 6,329 ships, and the ports in the Ambarlı Port Authority region ranked third with 4,256 ships.
In terms of cargo handling, Aliağa Port Authority led the pack with 81,355,615 tons of cargo handled last year. Kocaeli followed closely behind with 81,291,544 tons, marking the first time it fell to second place in this category. Kocaeli processed an average of 222,716 tons of cargo per day last year, with 22,258,656 tons being exports, 46,622,671 tons imports, and the remainder being cabotage and transit cargoes.
The ports in the Gulf of Izmit were also busy with container traffic, handling 2,159,160 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) containers in 2023.
The President of the İMEAK Chamber of Shipping Kocaeli Branch, Vedat Doğusel, highlighted Kocaeli’s importance as a maritime base and emphasized that new infrastructure investments will further develop the sector in the city. He noted that 85% of the cargo handled in Kocaeli is for foreign trade, making the city a key player in exports and imports.
Doğusel also pointed out the need for modernizing coastal structures, land terminals, railway networks, roads, and ports to accommodate today’s larger ships. He mentioned that Kocaeli is now seeing larger ships, and the ports in the city are expected to reach a cargo handling level of 100 million tons soon due to increased production.
In conclusion, Doğusel praised the world-class service provided by the ports in Kocaeli and emphasized the importance of adapting to new technologies and infrastructure developments in the maritime industry. The growth of the ports in Kocaeli reflects the overall progress of the maritime sector in Turkey.
