A fire that burned hundreds of containers at Turkey’s Iskenderun port, a major domestic heavy industry hub, has been extinguished after strong earthquakes in the area, the Turkish defence ministry says.
However, it remains unclear when work on the port will resume.
The port, located on the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Hatay, was damaged by the earthquake that struck Turkey and neighbouring Syria.
The Turkish shipping agency Tribeca reported that some cargo areas of the Limak port in the Iskenderun complex are still burning.
The fire led to the shutdown of all operations at the terminal until further notice and forced cargo companies to divert ships to other ports.
Global container shipping group AP Moller Maersk said there was significant damage to logistics and transport infrastructure around the epicentre of the earthquake, including the port of Iskenderun.
It said it was considering rerouting ships as needed, given the “severe structural damage, leading to a complete halt of all operations until further notice”.
Iskenderun is home to heavy industry, such as the steel industry, and is one of the two major container hubs on the southeast coast of Turkey.
As Turkey has now declared a three-month state of emergency following the earthquakes, market players are now highlighting the impact on the country’s trade infrastructure as trade routes have been rerouted and mills may have been damaged. According to a report by Steel Orbis, heavy machinery may be moved to residential areas instead of ports or mills to speed up operations.
Source: Steel Orbis/Reuters
