Minister Uraloğlu: We are the 4th in the world and the leader in Europe with 23 ship recycling facilities

Speaking at the 4th Turkish Maritime Summit held in ISTANBUL, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said, "Our shipbuilding industry is also in a strong position on a global scale by providing employment for more than 94 thousand people. With 85 active shipyards, we are 9th in the world in ship orders and 11th in tonnage. We realized ship and yacht exports worth 1.91 billion dollars in 2024. With 23 ship recycling facilities, we are 4th in the world and the leader in Europe. We support the renewal of our fleet with our scrap ship incentive program. We have provided 14 million dollars of incentives to date and are making new arrangements to increase the amount of incentives."

In addition to Uraloğlu, İMEAK Chamber of Shipping Board Chairman Taner Kıran, Maritime General Manager Ünal Baylan, and public and private sector representatives attended the program.

'IT WILL MAKE Türkiye'S PORTS THE CENTER OF GLOBAL LOGISTICS NETWORKS'

Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said, "In this forum, which was opened by our President and attended by 38 Ministers, 17 Deputy Ministers and senior executives of more than 30 international organizations from 80 countries, we signed 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding and held bilateral meetings with 19 countries. One of the most striking results of the forum is that it will bring a new breath to maritime transportation. The Joint Steering Committee established with Somalia, Ghana, Mauritania, Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Liberia and Guinea. This committee will create a cooperation platform open to other countries of the continent by connecting African ports to the Development Path and Middle Corridor via Turkey. This step will make Türkiye's ports the center of global logistics networks and will also increase the trade capacity of landlocked African countries. And I would like to emphasize once again here that this forum has proven once again that a corridor without Turkey in global trade is unthinkable and has further reinforced Türkiye's leadership as a geostrategic island of trust." he said.

'86 PERCENT OF FOREIGN TRADE TRANSPORTATION IN OUR COUNTRY IS CARRIED OUT BY SEA'

Uraloğlu said, "86 percent of foreign trade transportation in our country is carried out by sea. These figures once again reveal the importance of maritime in international trade. Our maritime trade has determinedly maintained its competitive power on a global scale in 2024. Our Turkish-owned maritime trade fleet ranks 11th in the world rankings with 2,154 ships and 52.9 million deadweight tons capacity. While 531.7 million tons of cargo and 13.5 million TEU containers were handled in our ports, our Ambarlı, Kocaeli, Mersin and Tekirdağ ports were among the world's busiest 100 container ports. In the first 5 months of 2025, we handled 230 million tons of cargo and 5.8 million TEU containers, an increase of 3 percent. We expect to handle 560 million tons of cargo and over 14 million TEU by the end of the year. We have gained great momentum in cruise tourism. "The number of cruise ships calling at our ports in 2024 reached 1,195, and the number of passengers increased by 22.5 percent to 1.9 million. In the first 5 months of 2025, the number of passengers increased by 33 percent to 440 thousand. We anticipate that we will easily exceed 2 million passengers this year," he said.

'WITH 85 ACTIVE SHIPYARDS, WE ARE 9TH IN THE WORLD IN SHIP ORDERS AND 11TH IN TONNAGE'

Minister Uraloğlu said, "Our shipbuilding industry is also in a strong position on a global scale by providing employment for more than 94 thousand people. With 85 active shipyards, we are ranked 9th in the world in ship orders and 11th in tonnage. We realized ship and yacht exports worth 1.91 billion dollars in 2024. We are 4th in the world and the leader in Europe with 23 ship recycling facilities. We are working relentlessly to further strengthen our sector with 174 boat manufacturing and slipways, 38 floating docks, and 11 dry docks. We support the renewal of our fleet with our scrap ship incentive program. We have provided 14 million dollars of incentives to date and are making new arrangements to increase the amount of incentives. In addition to our scrap incentive, another support we have provided to our sailors for a long time, the amount of fuel without SCT, has reached a total of 7.2 million tons. In this process, we have provided significant support by not collecting a total of 17.5 billion liras of SCT."

'WE PLAN TO INCREASE THE EMPLOYMENT OF GRADUATES FROM MARITIME SCHOOLS'

Uraloğlu said, “As of yesterday, we have updated the gold-franc value of the passage fees collected from ships passing through the Turkish Straits without a stopover. We will continue these updates every Cabotage Day. We will also actively monitor ship movements in the TRNC with the Eastern Mediterranean Ship Traffic Services System Project. In the project we are conducting with HAVELSAN, tower construction has started, the ship traffic services building has been completed and we will put the project into service in 2026. We have also started feasibility studies for a similar project for the Marmara Sea. These projects will strengthen our dominance in the Blue Homeland. And as you know, our Blue Homeland is an inseparable part of Türkiye’s sovereignty area.”

'WE UNDERLINED THAT WE WILL PROTECT ALL OF OUR RIGHTS IN THE BLUE HOMELAND'

Minister Uraloğlu said, "We have underlined that we will protect all our rights in the Blue Homeland with the Marine Spatial Plan prepared under the coordination of our General Directorate of Maritime Affairs, and we have also conveyed this planning to the relevant international organizations. We have increased the inspection in our seas. In 2024, we have carried out 14,713 administrative procedures with our port control boats. We have conducted preliminary surveys on 1,249 Turkish flagged ships in 2024 and 500 in the first 6 months of 2025. We have inspected 451 ships on national voyages in 2024 and 283 ships in the first half of 2025. We continue our inspections without compromising maritime safety. Our ministry experts have carried out almost half of the 5,997 inspections carried out in 2024 in the Mediterranean Memorandum (Med MoU), of which we are a founding member. We are changing our port state control legislation and implementing a port entry ban in line with the EU model in order to prevent substandard ships from calling at our ports. In the field of ship agency "Our legislative work is in the final stages. We aim to increase the employment of graduates of maritime schools and to ensure transparency in agency services. We will soon implement this regulation," he said.

'WE HAVE STARTED THE EFFORTS TO CHANGE THE MARITIME LABOR LAW'

Minister Uraloğlu said, "One of the most important building blocks of the maritime sector is undoubtedly our seafarers. Our active seafarers, more than 141 thousand of whom 8,300 are women, provide a strong human resource in the international market and we train qualified maritime personnel with our 104 accredited training institutions. We have accelerated the processes by updating the Seafarers Information System and reduced the document requirements with e-Government integration. In addition, we will complete the work to become a party to the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) this year and increase the welfare of our seafarers. Right now, we will become a party to our Gazi Assembly before the end of this year and we will remove this issue from our agenda after a long time by crossing another threshold in maritime. We have also started the work to amend the maritime labor law."

DHA

Reporter: News Center