TURKISH TRANSPORT AND LOGISTIC SERVICES

Turkey lies between Asia and Europe serving as a bridge geographically, culturally and economically. Its location on two continents plays a central part in Turkish history and gives the country’s transportation and logistic sector a major advantage in serving the markets of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Turkey has the most developed infrastructure in the region. During the last decade, significant efforts were made to renew the transportation and communication systems. as a result, significant improvements were achieved but as investment continues the sectors are still developing.

Investments in the transportation system concentrated on land transportation infrastructure and Turkey has developed one of the largest land transportation fleets in Europe. The network of highways has been developed significantly and the relative importance of highways has increased. The highway length has reached 61.912 kilometers of which 1 987 are motorways. Turkey, being aware of its geographic importance, exerts great efforts to establish transportation connections between Europe, Asia and Africa. The highway system that connects Asia and Europe plays an important role for transportation of goods between these continents. At present 95% of passenger transport and 90% of the transport of goods are realized via highway transport.

Turkey, a country surrounded by sea on three sides, places great emphasis on port development and sea transport. The sea coasts of Turkey stretch for 8 333 kilometers along the Mediterranean in the south, the Aegean in the west and the Black Sea in the north. In the northwest, there is also the important inland Sea of Marmara, between the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, important waterways that connect the Black Sea with the rest of the world. The state owned ports of Samsun, Haydarpaşa, (İstanbul), Derince, Bandırma, İzmir and İskenderun are operated by Turkish State Railways. Mersin Port Administration was privatized in 2007. A high proportion of the country’s overall transport traffic is handled by these harbours. In 2007, 11.718 ships were allowed by these
ports.

Shipping activity grew rapidly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the capacity of the Turkish maritime fleet which was 2 million DWT in 1980, it reached 7,2 million DWT in 2007. By the end of 2007, Turkish maritime fleet consists of 1.551 ships and ranks 25th in the world according to the number of ships. The main ports are Istanbul, Izmir, Izmit, Samsun, Trabzon, Mersin and Iskenderun which provide modern facilities with advanced infrastructure.

The railways are state owned and operated. Investments in this sector have been aimed at improving standards so that rail transport can become a competitive alternative to road and air transport. Companies can transport their goods from Turkey to European countries, the Middle East and CIS countries by railway. The length of railways in Turkey is 10.991 kilometers, of which 2.274 are currently electrified. In 2007, 20,7 million tones of cargo were transported. In terms of its rolling stock fleet, Turkish State Railways (TCDD) has 472 mainline loco, 58 shunting loco, 44 diesel railcar, 67 electric loco, 83 electric railcar, 17.041 freight cars and 1.137 passenger coaches. The harbors’ in Turkey are connected to railways so that companies are able to carry goods by combined transport.
An important infrastructure project in Turkey is the Marmaray Rail Tube Tunnel and Commuter Rail Mass Transit System in Istanbul. The Marmaray will be connecting Halkalı on the European side with Gebze on the Asian side with a commuter rail system. Theproject will be upgrading 76 kilometers of railway system. Another infrastructure project in the sector is the KarsTiflisBakü railway of which construction has started in 2008. With the completion of these two projects a continuous railway from China to Western Europe will be in operation.

Turkey has airports handling international and domestic flights, the major international terminals being İstanbul (Atatürk), Ankara (Esenboğa) and İzmir (Adnan Menderes). Adana, Trabzon, NevşehirKapadokya, Dalaman, MilasBodrum, Isparta (S.Demirel) and Antalya are major flight points. Apart from those, airports located in Bursa, TekirdağÇorlu, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Kars, Samsun Çarşamba, Van, DenizliÇardak, Hatay and Kayseri are open to unscheduled and charter flights. Turkish Airlines, Turkey’s largest airline company, connects all regions with its worldwide network. Besides Turkish Airlines there are also private sector companies which are operational in the same field. A total of 39 airports of different sizes are open to civil air traffic. According to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority the number of landings was 648.988 and the 1,4 million tons cargo was transported by airway in 2007. In additional due to the repairs and
maintenance services at all airports, the number of international airlines operating in Turkey is increasing each year.

As the importance of RoRo transportation increases, the usage and number of RoRo ships in transportation are also rising. In 2007, 130.391 shipments were made by RoRo transportation. The RoRo lines that Turkish companies serve are. Haydarpaşa (Istanbul) – Trieste (Italy), KumportTrieste, Ambarlı (Istanbul) – Trieste, Çeşme (Izmir) Trieste, TekirdağTrieste, ZonguldakEvpatoria (Ukraine), ZonguldakUkraina,SamsunIlyichevsky, SamsunNovorossisky (Russian Federation), TrabzonSochi ( Russian Federation) , RizePoti (Georgia). Although logistic services are new in Turkey the sector is growing rapidly. Standing at the
crossroads of major trade routes makes Turkey an important candidate to become a logistic center in the coming years. Every year the endorsement of Turkish logistic companies increases. In 2007, total transport and logistics revenue was 6.104 billion US Dollars. It is assumed that the share of logistics and tranportation sector in GDP is between 8 12 %. According to this figure the size of the sector is between 4565 billion US Dollars. As a result of the new transportation projects in Turkey, combined transportation will gain more importance in the future. Turkey is also planning to construct new logistic centers. With the modernization of company structures and new investments that the Turkish logistic companies have started are getting ready to serve worldwide.


In 2009, four fairs related to transportation and logistics will be held in Turkey. With these fairs, the sector is able to show its capacity and dynamic structure and always welcomes its guests and competitors from all around the world. The names of the fairs are. “WIN MATERIALS HANDLING '09” in February in İstanbul, “EXPOSHIPPING EUROPORT” in March in Istanbul, “ “MERSIN LOGISTIC and TRANSPORT FAIR” in October in Mersin, and “ISKON 2009” in October in Konya.