Sukru Fazil Uzun, the board chairman of Yalova-Altinova Shipyard Entrepreneurs Inc., said that 37 shipyards operate in the region, 33 of which belong to their troops. Uzun explained that around 23 thousand personnel work in the shipyards, where they have investments of about $2 billion.
Regarding the production in the facilities, Uzun gave the following information:
‘’The world’s largest fishing vessels are being built in our region. Very specific vessels are produced, including special vessels, ferries, electric powered vessels. Large-tonnage ships like in Far East are not produced in Turkey but very special types of ships are being built. In other words, ships that are light in cargo and heavy in cost are produced and different special works are performed in each of them. Therefore, we are different from the world in this respect, and we are a little ahead. The cruise ship construction began for the first time in Turkey. This is very important for Turkey. Although we have built all kinds of ships until now, large cruise ships were not built. We have also started the production of cruise ships with the order of 4 cruise ships from one of our shipyards in our region.’’
‘’We have already shipbuilding contracts for the end of 2022.’’
Pointing out that there was a slowdown in shipbuilding contracts with the start of the epidemic, Uzun said:
‘’This was due to the fact that the buyer companies went to delay due to uncertainty or this reason, not many shipbuilding requests were received for 2021. Hopefully, when this pandemic is over or slowed down, the demands will increase rapidly. There are new construction demands already received by the end of 2022. They will be delivered for the end of 2022. When our capacity increases, the number of our employees will increase much more in our region. Our number of employees, which is currently 23 thousand, will definitely find 45 thousand when this rate increases. Even with this much of our capacity, we provide this export, this business volume. That is why we consider ourselves successful and our hopes for the future are very high.’’
Annual income of $ 600 million in ship repair and maintenance
Uzun stated that besides shipbuilding, repair and maintenance works were also carried out in shipyards. Emphasizing that the shipyards in Altinova and Tuzla district of Istanbul are at the forefront in this respect, Uzun said:
‘’Our region provides our country with an income of around 600 million dollars a year in terms of repairs. All our pools are full throughout the year. Large tonnage ships come to our country for repair and maintenance from all over the world. Their maintenance and repairs are carried out meticulously and our customers leave our country very satisfied.
Ships and yachts Turkey’s exports came to $ 922 million despite the pandemic impact in January-September period. Compared to the same period last year, which was $ 726 million, an increase of 26.9 percent was recorded.
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu