SOCAR enters Turkey’s port business
Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 31 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) plans in two years to complete construction of a new container port in the territory of Turkey's large petrochemical complex Petkim , in which SOCAR has an equity participation, SOCAR Head Rovnag Abdullayev said in an interview with the state television AzTV on Monday. Port capacity of 1.2 million TEU (containers).
Construction of the new port is scheduled to begin in the near future. Particularly, the process of negotiations with major international companies specialized in this field is nearing completion.
The new port will be built to meet the needs of the Turkish domestic market, Abdullayev said.
The only port in this region is located in Izmir, where a small depth of water do not allow to accept large container ships. Currently, large-capacity container ships with cargoes destined for Turkey, moored in Greece, where goods are distributed by smaller vessels and then transported to Turkey.
A water depth of 19 meters in the new port will allow reception of the largest ships.
The alliance between SOCAR and Turcas Petrol /Injaz projects resulted in them winning a tender in 2008 to buy a 51 per cent stake in various chemical projects worth $2.04 billion. Now Turkey imports 70 to 75 per cent of its chemical products. Investments in the development of Petkim will reduce that figure by 30 per cent.
The Petkim Petrokimya Holding manufactures plastic packaging, fabric, PVC and detergents. It is the only Turkish producer of such products and exports a quarter of its production.
