In Turkey there are approximately 290 shore facilities, including ports, fishing harbors, docks and yacht harbors. The total length of these facilities is more than 33,000 meters; most of them are small-scale and used for specific purposes. 118 of them are seaports and quays to which ships over 500 GRT can be docked and which are used in cargo transport.

Private port operation has a history of about 10 years in Turkey and maritime transport in Turkey includes of 87.4% of the county's international cargo flows, whereas transport by roads has a share of 10.32%, railroad, and air and other transportation facilities total only a 1.32% share, as of 2004. Maritime transport accounts for 91% of the country's imports and 80.4% of its exports.

* Evyap Port, a subsidiary of Turkey's leading soap and personal care products manufacturers Evyap Holding, is one of the private ports of the country and it has been serving its customers since 2003. Bugra Bilginer, Evyap Logistics Project and Business Development Manager, talked to TURKOFAMERICA about the port business in Turkey and Evyap Port.

Can you give us some information about your services and investments in port management and your entrance into the logistics sector?
Evyap Logistics is the logistics subsidiary of Evyap Holding and port management is the biggest activity of the company. Evyap Logistics's other services are bonded warehouse and depot management, container inland trucking, and logistics management for bulk liquids. Evyap Port is located on the west side of Kocaeli city; 80 km east of Bosphorus and 10 km west of Izmit (Kocaeli) city center. Istanbul and Kocaeli have important roles in Turkey's economy. Evyap Port is in the middle of Istanbul's industrial areas, with such places as Gebze, Tuzla, Umraniye, Sultanbeyli and Izmit industrial sites within an average distance of 30 km.

Our main company, Evyap, is one of the leading soap and personal care products manufacturers of the world. Logistics has an important role in the import, manufacturing and export processes of our main business stream. For this reason, in 2001 it was decided to invest in port management and we berthed the first ship in 2003. In the beginning, we were handling bulk liquids and general cargo. With the strong demand and support from our customers, we continued to invest in infrastructure and equipment and in 2004 our container terminal, and in 2005, the car terminal, became operational. At that moment, we became a port able to handle 4 different cargo groups: liquid tank terminal, general cargo and heavy project cargoes, container terminal and car terminal.

What is the capacity of the port?
Evyap Port has 600 meters berthing capacity, 19 meters water depth and an area of 135,000 square miles. At the Container Terminal Maersk, Turkon, Roksolana and Tavria container lines have regular services. Especially in 2006, with the help of increased lines and destinations, factories in Istanbul on the Anatolian Side and Kocaeli are shifting their export and import movements to Evyap Port.

After 9/11, new security regulations were announced and Evyap Port was one of the first three ports to apply the ISPS Code (International Ship and Port Security Code). We have 41 tanks with storage capacities ranging from 910 cubic meters to 4,150 cublic meters. The terminal has a total capacity of a 120,000 cbm tank farm, all equipped with a serpantine heating system with electrical heat traced and insulated pipe lines to ensure constant temperature. The car terminal has a capacity to park 3,000 cars at the same time with roro ramps 30 meters wide, enabling the berthing of the biggest pure car carrier vessels.

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