Turkeys shipbuilding comes of age

Projects implemented by the Turkish Ministry of Transport in the last four years to increase shipyard capacity and efficiency has started to bear fruit. The ministry took the shipyards? demands for growth as their priority and development plans were approved by the Ministry of Public Works.

The Tuzla Shipyard and Tourism Co. now has the capacity to build 45,000 DWT ships. Employment in shipbuilding rose from 13,000 in 2003 to 28,500 while capacity rose from 654,000 DWT to 1.4 million DWT. The amount of sheet steel processed in shipyards has doubled and Turkey?s worldwide market share in shipbuilding has risen from 0.9% to 1.4% taking Turkey into fifth place in shipbuilding behind Germany which occupies fourth place with a share of 3.6%.

With these developments, the Turkish Ministry of Transport?s bureau for Maritime Affairs has set a new shipbuilding, Binali Yildirim, said: “Shipbuilding capacity has increased by an average of 65% in the last four years. The number of shipyards operating or about to start operating in Tuzla as well as in the Black Sea, Izmit Gulf, and Yalova, in the Aegean, has reached 60. We used to build ships of up to 20,000 tons maximum but we are currently able to build ships of up to 60,000-70,000 DWT.”

An additional 3,600 people have been employed in the last three years and steel processing capacity has increased by 306,000 tons. Maintenance and repair capacity have also seen a considerable increase with a million-ton yearly capacity as a result of the restructuring of some other shipyards.