APM Terminals has held a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the near-completion of its terminal in Izmir.
The 1.3m teu capacity container terminal will be able to handle 16,000 teu vessels and will serve Istanbul and southern Turkey.
Managing director Mogens Larsen told employees: “It has now been more than two and a half years since we started on this project. At that time, there was nothing and now we are very close to having a fully-functional and ready container terminal.”
The terminal will have three STS cranes and ten RTGs and a 700 m quay with a depth of 16 m.
While it will originally have a capacity of 1.3m teu, it has the ability to expand to a capacity of 4m teu, if deemed necessary during the 28-year concession agreement.
APMT hope to benefit from the Turkish government’s desire to increase exports to US$500bn a year by 2023.
The terminal’s opening has been later than expected as, in October 2015, the company predicted it would handle its first vessel in March 2016.
Source: Container Management
Source: Container Management