Following the close down of the maritime link directly operated between Turkey (Istanbul) and Italy (Trieste), Alternative Taşımacılık A.Ş. has decided to use its ro-ro ships PAQIZE, QEZBAN, HATCHE and MELEQ by chartering or selling them to different international operators.
The general manager of the Turkish shipping firm, Hakan Yılmaz, stated that they took this decision to ensure the continued growth of the group companies in a stronger and more secure way. “We had to take this decision to eliminate the imbalance in our cash flow for which we couldn’t find the desired solution, mostly due to the unfavourable economic conditions in our country that appeared after we had to finance the Yalova port investment ourselves” Yılmaz said.
The other two vessels in fleet, AYSHE and FADIQ, are currently operated on charter and will continued be deployed on the link between Çeşme in Turkey and Sète in France.
As for the future intentions regarding the ro-ro terminal controlled in the port of Trieste through the company Europe Multipurpose Terminal, Alternative’s commercial director Esber Horasan commented as follows: “In our main end to end logistics business we will continue investing more in the intermodal business. Terminals are part of this development for railway connections, so in the short term plans we do not have plan to dismiss it. We are receiving cooperation and purchase offers for our terminals but there are no sales negotiation ongoing”.
