Developments in Maritime Transport and Logistics in Turkey

Mahmut Celal Barla, Osman Kamil Sag, Michael Roe, Richard Gray

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780754613923
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351944656
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Turkey is one of the largest and most important shipping and logistics centres in the world. This edited collection brings together industrialists actively involved in the shipping trade with an interdisciplinary team of academics from the region to provide a unique, broad perspective on the industry as a whole. Using Turkey as an in-depth case study, the volume examines issues such as port economics and policy, training and education, ship finance, containerisation and maritime policy in general. This is a useful reference for professionals and academics in both shipping and logistics.

1  Introduction

MICHAEL ROE

INSTITUTE OF MARINE STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

This book is a result of a number of years of collaboration that has taken place between the University of Plymouth in the UK and Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. Through the close relationships that those in Izmir have developed through other universities in Turkey, a number of papers have been brought together which are of some significance to the development of the maritime economy in Turkey and which also reflect the standing of Dokuz Eylul University as the major research and teaching institution in the region for maritime business. In addition, the work of the other editors of this book needs to be recognised – Professor Mahmut Celal Barla of Istanbul University and Professor Osman Kamil Sag of Istanbul Technical University and Dr Richard Gray at the University of Plymouth -without whose close co-operation the text would never have emerged.

The Institute of Marine Studies at the University of Plymouth remains the leading research and teaching university for maritime business in Western Europe and retains its long-standing interests in Turkey as an educational and maritime partner. There has been a history of student and staff exchanges, collaborative research projects and combined publications through the 1990s fostered by the encouragement enthusiasm and academic leadership of Professor A. Güldem Cerit at Dokuz Eylul, without whom little would have been achieved. Additional thanks must also be passed to Dr H. Funda Yercan – a long-standing colleague and friend – and Dr Okan Tuna, both also from Dokuz Eylul, without whom the task would have been made that much more difficult.

The book itself ranges widely over Turkish maritime affairs reflecting the breadth of activity within that country in the shipping, ports and ancillary sectors.

The opening paper by Kaptanoglou and Roe was completed whilst the former was researching at the University of Plymouth and focuses upon the importance and development of the shipping industry in Turkey during the early and mid 1990s, a period of significance for the industry. It provides an interesting and detailed background for the papers that follow.

Tuna’s detailed examination of service quality in container shipping, carried out in Turkey is a development of his doctoral research that was completed in Turkey and gives a unique interpretation of marketing issues in this sector of business which has been largely ignored from this perspective.

Meanwhile, the paper by Alkan, Cerit and Barla provides our first look at the ports of Turkey, and that of Mersin in particular, in terns of its development as a centre and stimulus for regional activity, examining its feeder activity in the container market place.

We next turn to legal matters where the paper by Baser and Baser takes a detailed look from a Turkish perspective, of the difficulties and specific needs of a maritime policy for straits with examples from the Mediterranean region. In so doing it represents a unique analysis, providing for the first time an attempt at bringing together a discussion that is particularly pertinent in the light of the problems presented by the Bosphorous Strait in Turkey.

Another Turkish perspective is taken by Kisi but this time in considering crisis management approaches in Turkish ports. The specific characteristics of port crisis management is considered here with examples form Turkey to illustrate the difficulties and requirements. This is followed by the paper from Cerit and Sag which turns to the important shipbuilding markets in Turkey and the impact of technological developments.

The importance of the Caspian Sea oil industry and the growth of exports from this region is examined by Yuceer and Cerit in their paper. Turkish shipowners are hopeful of playing a major role in this market in the future as the oil starts to flow from the new fields being discovered. Plans to develop pipeline connections to Turkish ports from the Caspian remain unresolved but offer the prospect of enormous potential markets for oil shipping in the future.

Shipbuilding is returned to in the paper by Bayraktar, Heijveld and Roe which provides a detailed examination of the development of the industry during the 1990s when its growth and technical expansion was notable. This paper is the result of a period of research carried out at the Institute of Marine Studies during the 1990s as part of a collaborative research programme.

Acar provides a Turkish perspective on reliability, availability, maintenance and safety in the maritime sector, taking a Turkish perspective and is valuable in considering these serious issues together in a rare example of research in this sector. Alkan, Bak and Cerit review the role and importance of ergonomics in shipping using examples from the Turkish industry, whilst Devici, Cerit and Sigura analyse the role of liner agents in port service quality from the point of view of the container sector in a paper that provides a unique analysis of this industry.

Finally, Yercan covers the issues which are emerging from the continued privatisation of major ports in Turkey and the difficulties and opportunities that are being faced as this process continues.

In this way, this text provides coverage of the entire maritime sector in Turkey, from shipping to ports, shipbuilding to agencies, ergonomics to law in a way that has not been achieved before. It is hoped that the reader will enjoy discussion of the major issues in maritime affairs in Turkey as a result, as that country continues to integrate with the rest of Europe and its shipping, shipbuilding and ports sectors continue to grow and prosper.

Michael Roe

Plymouth, January 19^th 2001.

2 The Role of Shipping in the Turkish Economy in the 1990s

MEHMET KAPTANOGLOU AND MICHAEL ROE INSTITUTE OF MARINE STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

Introduction

Towards the year 2000, the new order of the changing world has a tendency to move to increasing globalisation with many international activities developing closer relationships and links. Turkey is involved in this globalisation with the most recent example of the Customs Union with the European Union, which commenced on January 1, 1996.

Turkey has considerable potential for developing trade. One of the sources of this potential is the entrepreneurial nature of the private sector. The total amount of exports and volume of foreign trade has increased largely because of the liberalisation of the economy of the country during the 1980s. Considerable development in the Turkish shipping industry has been seen as a result of the growth in the economy.

The relationship between the sea and the Turkish people has been continuous since the 15th century. Although there has been a large Turkish fleet throughout history, the majority has been related to military and not mercantile objectives. In more recent years, the capacity of the Turkish merchant fleet has been increasing since the end of the 1980s. The total capacity of the fleet has doubled during this period and therefore, the role of Turkish shipping in the national economy has increased significantly in importance.

Although most industries in the country were affected by the economic crisis of 1994, the Turkish shipping industry largely escaped. The main reasons were the international activities of the shipping industry and its ability to access sources of foreign exchange.

This paper goes on to examine the relationship between the Turkish shipping industry and the Turkish economy during the mid-1990s.

Turkey and its Economy

Background to Turkey

Turkey is a country with some very individual characteristics compared with most countries in the world. For example, Turkey has lands both in Europe and in Asia, Turkey is a Moslem country but has a liberal economy, and Turkey has an historical background based on the Ottoman Empire but remains to a large extent a developing country.

Turkey is situated on both the European and Asian continents with land totalling approximately 780,000 sq. km. The mainland is located on the south-west of the Asian continent, known as the peninsula of Anatolia. The European part of the country is rather small compared to the Asian part and it is situated in the far south-east of the continent.

There are four seas surrounding Turkey. These are the Black Sea to the north, the Marmara Sea to the north-west, the Aegean Sea to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The total length of coastline of Turkey is approximately 8,000 kilometres. There are two straits to the north-west of Turkey where the two continents face each other – the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. The Black Sea to the north connects the Aegean Sea to the west through these straits, whilst the Marmara Sea is situated between them.

The neighbouring countries of Turkey are Iraq and Syria on the south-eastern border, Iran on the eastern border, Georgia and Armenia on the north-eastern borders and Greece and Bulgaria on the north-western borders.

The population of Turkey is approximately 60 million (1998). The number of inhabitants per square kilometre is 80. The annual growth rate for the population has been approximately 20% up until 1995 (Institute of Statistics, 1995).

The political nature of Turkey has tended to be to the right of the spectrum. The political characteristics of Turkey have generally been liberal with the main target of a liberalised economy dominating at present. There has been a coalition in power from the beginning of 1996, between parties from the right side.

Turkey is both a developing and an industrialising country. Approximately 65% of the population lives in urban areas. The annual growth rate of these urban areas was until the mid 1980s, approximately 40% whilst the annual growth rate of rural areas was approximately -6% (Middle East Research Institute, 1985). These percentages clearly indicate that there has been a rapid movement of people from rural to urban areas largely caused by the sizeable development in industry and education.

Economic Structure

The economy was closed and dependent upon domestic resources until the beginning of the 1980s. After the Prime Ministry of Ozal in 1983, the Turkish economy was largely liberalised (Middle East Research Institute, 1985). Since then, further steps have been taken towards extending the economic development of Turkey including in particular, its further industrialisation.

The characteristics of the current Turkish economy have been derived from the liberalisation policies developed during the Prime Ministry of Ozal through the 1980s. Liberalisation within the economy has played an important role for Turkey and the shipping industry has been one economic activity that has been particularly affected.

There was considerable instability and uncertainty within the Turkish economy in the period leading up to the 1980s severely affecting many economic sectors. However, the situation began to recover after the military action of 1980. Democracy again took its place in the political arena in 1983. Turgut Ozal, with a background from the USA, was elected as the Prime Minister from the Motherland Party. This was a turning point for the economy (and society) which has had substantial implications for the shipping industry amongst others.

The major changes introduced by the Ozal government during this period included the following:

• the Turkish Lira has become a convertible currency;

• limitations on the possession of foreign currency have been removed;

• stock exchange markets have been extensively developed and become considerably more active;

• exports and imports have become easier;

• bureaucratic problems have been reduced;

• a variety of subsidies have been given to private entrepreneurs to increase exports.

As a result, the Turkish economy showed sporadic signs of recovery and e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Role of Shipping in the Turkish Economy in the 1990s
• 3 Dimensions of Service Quality in Container Transportation: an Empirical Investigation
• 4 Regional Development and Port Planning: The Port of Mersin as a Feeder Terminal in the Eastern Mediterranean
• 5 Environmental Protection of Straits and the Law of the Sea with Particular Reference to the Mediterranean
• 6 Crises in Ports and the Significance of Procuring Contingency Plans
• 7 Shipbuilding Markets and the Impact of Technology as a Macro Environmental Factor
• 9 Turkish Shipbuilding in the 1990s
• 10 Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety Assessment in the Maritime Industry
• 11 Advances in Ergonomics in the Maritime Sector: a Turkish Perspective
• 12 Liner Agents and Container Port Service Quality
• 13 Comparative Analysis of Recently Privatised Major Ports in Turkey