Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Ünal Baylan, General Manager of Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, and Halil Yıldız, General Manager of Shipyards and Coastal Structures, took part in the meeting attended by senior representatives of the public and private sector, and evaluated the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure's view of the delivery processes of the load to the right person. Industry representatives thanked the Ministry for its article and underlined the need to establish a discipline against exorbitant price practices.

Tamer Kıran shared at the meeting that the issue of the letter of guarantee raised by the IMEAK DTO and the Turkish Maritime Council voiced for a long term has been resolved. In the face of difficulties due to the acceptance of the letters of guarantee and the commission rates requested by foreigners for ships ordered from Turkish shipyards, Kıran stated that Eximbank has also started to provide loans to shipyards on a project-by-project for ships to be built for export purposes.

In accordance with the Environmental Law No: 2872, council members reiterated that sea pollution fines for vessels are not directly proportional to the crime due to high penalty rates of insurance problems beginning to occur and loss of foreign currency from ships deciding against repairs and maintenance at Turkish shipyards.

Drawing attention to the European Commission Trade Barrier report at the meeting, which was prepared by the EU Commission and presented to the EU Parliament and the Council, it was assessed that this would lead to the emergence of trade barriers, in which the EU will re-evaluate all its directives and conventions within the framework of the Green Agreement.

Members of the Turkish Maritime Council commented on the financial efforts initiated to renew the Turkish coaster fleet, which has a market share of about 35% in Mediterranean and Black Sea maritime transportation. The financial model created for the renewal of the aging coaster fleet, unused recently due to increased interest rates and exchange rate, the council members stated to the fleet needs to be renewed in order preserve its competitiveness in the region as well as addressing environment and safety risks, in order to implement the financial model, alternative solutions need to be worked on.

Industry representatives who consulted on declaring our country's coastal waters as the Emission Control Zone pointed out that the sector abides by the international rules imposed for the maritime sector in the world, but that refineries around the world cannot produce fuel of the standard requested, that production of very low sulfur fuel oil (five per thousandths) is around 3%, and underlined that it should be considered in accordance with complementary sectors when the rules are put in place.