Turkey earthquake: Iskenderun port halts operation

February 7, 2023

1 mins read

Following a Mintec story published here, on 6th February, which explored how Turkey had one of the strongest earthquakes since 1939, the official casualties are now reported to be over 3500 in Turkey, while the Syria toll stands at about 1600. A Turkey-based Mintec source noted, “the whole city is a wreck, there are corpses everywhere. It’s like we’re in a movie, I can’t describe the situation. We are all devastated.”

There are reports that Iskenderun port in southern Turkey caught on fire around 17:00 pm last night in the cargo containers section of the port. The port handles general cargo, dry bulk, and liquid bulk and plays an important role as a transit port to countries in the Middle East. According to market sources, the port damage is quite severe, especially its container terminal and supporting infrastructure. On 7th February, some parts of the port were still on fire, and it was forced to halt operations. According to market participants, “things look bad, but Turkey has sufficient alternative port capacity, so hopefully, this will help to eliminate huge collapses in trade routes. I heard that vessels were diverted to other ports nearby, like to the port of Mersin or Said. So far, we haven’t seen an impact on grain prices. I think at the moment it looks like the most severe damage is with energy infrastructure, all the gas and electricity transmission and distribution lines.”

Topics: Grains & Feed
Zanna Aleksahhina
Zanna Aleksahhina

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