In a bid to keep up with growing container volumes in the country, port operator APM Terminals BV (APMT) has expressed an interest in buying more ports in Turkey.
Bloomberg reported managing director for APM’s Turkish unit Mogens Wolf Larsen as saying that container-handling is growing twice as fast as gross domestic product in Turkey, yet on a per-capita basis, the industry is half the size as Germany’s.
Turkey handled a total of 8 million TEU at its ports in 2013 but had a capacity of around 12 million.
Larsen, said: “We are definitely interested to have a port around Istanbul, in the Marmara region. We can also look at the Mediterranean coast between Mersin and Iskenderun.
“The container port business in Turkey is very underdeveloped. As Turkey opens up and starts accepting large ships, container port businesses will grow.”
APMT plans to start operations at its container port in Aliaga peninsula, Western Turkey, from 2016.
Goldman Sachs Group bought a 30% stake in the port for US$250 million this year.
APMT and petrochemicals maker, Petkim are together investing as much as $450 million in the port, which will have an annual container handling capacity of 1.3 million TEU.
APMT in $450 million Turkish Port Drive. (Source: APM Terminals)
