Arzu ÇETİK
İZMİR – Doğan News Agency


Turaaa's commercial maritime fleet is growing older and ranks lower than Iran and Malaysia which points to Turaaa's growing need for new ships and more shipyards according to industry experts.

Turaaa's commercial maritime fleet ranked 16th in the world in 1996 in terms of number of ships and freight capacity but has dropped to 25th as of 2006. Out of 1429 ships 41 percent are between 20 and 29 years old while 13 percent are older than 30.

Maritime Ministry:

İzmir Captains' Association Chairman Ünal Benlialper called for the founding of a Maritime Ministry noting that things could only go so far with just an undersecretariat. “Short and medium term strategic programs should have been prepared and orders for new ships should have been made in line with the goals.”

He said the average age of ships in Europe was between 0 and 10 years. “Turaaa is still in the gray list. Our promotion from black to gray list happened just recently. As a country surrounded by sees we should be on the white list” he said.

Benlialper said 90 percent of commerce to and from Turaaa was through ships but “We can't even carry our own goods. Most are carried by foreign ships.”

Benlialper also complained about what he termed “disorganized shipyard building” noting that 90 percent of shipyards were located in Istanbul's Tuzla region.



Orders go to Far East:

The head of the Chamber of Maritime Commerce's İzmir bureau Geza Dologh said the ageing fleet was a comparative disadvantage. “Turks are ordering new ships from foreign shipyards. Most orders go to Japan South Korea and China. If these orders were kept in Turaaa it would create huge income and jobs. We don't want incentives. We just want authorities to show us a site so that we can build [shipyards]” he said.



Scrapped as junk:

The current freight charges are very high and that is the only reason why the old Turkish ships were still in use said the head of the Chamber of Naval Engineers Emrah Erginer.

There are some who use 30-year-old ships for freight he said. “There are too few ships and that is why the old ones cannot be scrapped. If freight charges dropped most would be removed from the fleet” said Erginer.

The focus of Turkish shipyards is on tankers that carry chemicals he said calling on a change of focus toward dry freight ships.

The lifespan of a ship is between 15 and 20 years he said. “As it gets older its insurance premiums and repair costs increase. It needs to be overhauled every five years” he said.



Aim is to have 140 shipyards by 2013:

According to a report by the Undersecretariat for Maritime Affairs which was submitted to a parliamentary commission investigating workplace safety at shipyards there were 37 shipyards in Turaaa in 2002. This increased to 84 as of April this year. The plan is to increase this number to 140.

The capacity of Turaaa's shipyards in 2002 was 550000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) while the figure increased to 1.98 million DWT in 2007. By 2013 the figure is expected to increase to 8.6 million DWT.

The report said there was a huge boom in shipyard building after 2003 noting that construction of 108 shipyards began after 2003 with work on 65 still continuing.