It’s been a couple of days of mixed fortunes for fast-growing UAE ports and logistics firm AD Ports and its endeavours to expand in Turkey.
Its plans to expand into shipping continued yesterday with the announcement of a joint-venture with Turkish port operator and logistics group Erkport, which will see the launch of a ro-ro shipping line.
AD Ports’ dedicated logistics subsidiary, Noatum Maritime, will own a 60% stake in the new United Global Ro-Ro, with Erkport holding the remaining 40%. The new carrier “will jointly deploy container ro-ro (ConRo), pure car and truck carrier (PCTC), and ro-ro vessels”, launching with “11 vessels deployed on five services”.
Erkport shipping subsidiary Mediterraline currently offers two intra-Mediterranean ro-ro services and a deepsea service linking Turkey and China, and the injection of AD Ports capital is expected to spur the development of new routes.
“The demand for efficient cargo transportation continues to rise, and this strategic partnership allows us to expand in the ro-ro shipping industry, consistently explore new markets, and capitalise on emerging opportunities,” Ammar Al Shaiba, CEO of the maritime & shipping cluster at AD Ports explained.
“This venture is set to further streamline operations through integrated regional feeder networks, reduce transit times, and enhance cargo delivery efficiency for our customers.
“Moreover, Erkport’s established presence and experience in the ro-ro sector make it an ideal collaborator for this joint-venture,” he added.
In a separate development, however, it appears that plans for AD Ports to expand its portfolio of port operations via the acquisition of the Alsancak Container Terminal (pictured above), in the Turkish port of Izmir, have come to nothing. The Turkish government has confirmed that negotiations with the group had been abandoned.
In an interview with Bloomberg Turkish transportation minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said: “We have pursued long negotiations with the investor from the Gulf, but no agreement has been achieved. “The aim was to get a partner to expand Alsancak port,” he added without elaborating the reason why the talks ended.
The terminal is owned by Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund TWF and operated by state-owned rail company TCDD – Turkey’s de facto operator of its non-privatised terminals.
The privatisation of Alsancak is a long-running saga. In 2007, a group of investors, including Hutchison Port Holdings, was lined up to acquire the facility in a deal rumoured to be worth over $1bn, but this was blocked by a local court.
At the time, it was regularly handling around 900,000 teu a year and was close to full capacity, according to the eeSea liner database. Since then, however, volumes have shrunk – it handled just 390,000 teu in 2022, the last year for which full statistics are available.
It hosts 25 regular liner shipping services, a variety of intra-regional and feeder links to European and North American ports.
