DP World Yarimca, one of the biggest container terminals in Turkey, has been officially opened for business by the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the global marine terminal operator DP World said.
The new container terminal, built in Kocaeli city, Körfez district, can handle up to 1.3 million containers covering 460,000 square metres.
The facility enhances Turkey’s connectivity with Europe and Asia and enables trade from the heartland of its most industrialised region, Izmit Bay, the company said.
DP World Yarimca is the first infrastructure project in Izmit Bay to be run by an international operator, and the first in the country to use remote controlled gantry cranes with automated gate operations featuring a vehicle appointment system for faster processing.
It also features fast scanner x-ray machines that can scan 120 containers every hour, DP World said.
The container terminal has two main berths of 465 metres and 430 metres in length that can accommodate two vessels at the same time, six ship-to-shore gantry cranes and 18 electrical RTGs (Rubber Tire Gantry Cranes) used for container stacking and weighing.
In 2015, total trade between Turkey and Dubai reached AED 25.26 billion (USD 6.8 billion).
The imports between the two countries were at AED 14.6 billion, while exports were reported at AED 7.9 billion and re-exports hit AED 2.77 billion.