Total volume of freight handled at Turkey’s ports increased by 6.6 percent in the first half of the year from a year ago to 273.5 million tons, Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu has said.
In June alone, ports handled 45.3 million tons of goods, marking a 3.7 percent increase from the same month of 2021, the minister said in a written statement.
Ports also handled 12.9 million tons of good destined for foreign markets, down 4.3 percent on an annual basis,
while the volume of imported goods rose by 9.6 percent to 19.96 million tons, according to Karaismailoğlu.
“Consequently, foreign traderelated freight handling at the ports increased in June by 3.7 percent from a year ago to 32.9 million tons.”
The U.S. was the top destination of export goods with 1.63 million tons, followed by Italy and Spain and cement was the largest export item shipped from the Turkish ports to foreign markets.
In import freights, Russia and oil topped the list.
The port in the northwestern province of Kocaeli was the busiest as 6.98 million tons of freight were handled there, followed by the ports in Aliağa and Ceyhan, said Karaismailoğlu.
The volume of containers handled at the country’s ports stood at 6.4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) in January-June, up 2.7 percent from the same period of last year, while the volume of transit containers was down 16.2 percent to 158,177 TEU, the minister also said.
