ANKARA

The Turkish straits, namely the Istanbul and Canakkale straits, saw some 62,736 vessels pass through in the first nine months of the year, the Turkish transport and infrastructure minister told Anadolu.

Abdulkadir Uraloglu stated that a total of 29,710 vessels transited through the Istanbul Strait, while some 33,029 traveled via the Canakkale Strait in January-September.

Some 21,235 of the total number of vessels were general cargo ships, and 11,437 were bulk carriers.

Uraloglu stated that some 7,959 container ships passed through the Turkish straits, totaling 1.1 million gross tons of ships during the same period.

Some 47,631 called at Turkish ports in the first nine months of the year; 30,854 carried foreign flags, while some 16,770 were Turkish-flagged.

The northwestern province of Kocaeli welcomed 1,967 Turkish-flagged vessels, followed by the port of Cesme with 1,374, Aliaga with 1,331, and Ambarli with 1,231.

Kocaeli also saw the most foreign-flagged vessels in January-September, totaling 4,946 vessels, followed by Aliaga with 3,332, Iskenderun with 2,654, and Mersin with 2,430.

“The data points to our strengthening position in the world maritime trade,” said Uraloglu. “We handled 457 million tons of cargo at our ports in the last 10 months, while the number of containers reached 11.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).”

“The number of cruise ships arriving at Turkish ports totaled 1,278, carrying over 2 million passengers, marking a new record,” he added.