top of page
Search

Türkiye's Logistics Advantage: Ports, RoRo and the Middle Corridor

Writer: Selim Shlomi Benbasat
Selim Shlomi Benbasat
3 days ago
3 min read

Location is only an advantage if goods actually move. Türkiye ranks 38th of 139 economies in the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index 2023, with an overall score of 3.4. It scores best on timeliness (3.6) and international shipments, where it ranks 26th.1 Here is what sits behind those scores, and why it matters for buyers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

[Picture 1]

Ports that handle millions of containers

Turkish ports handled 13.5 million TEU of containers and 531.7 million tonnes of cargo in 2024. The Ambarlı port authority area near İstanbul alone handled more than 3 million TEU.2 Growth continued in 2025: from January to November ports handled 12.8 million TEU, 3.2% more than in the same period of 2024. In November 2025 the five biggest port authority areas, Ambarlı, Kocaeli, Mersin, Tekirdağ and Aliağa, handled 82.3% of all container traffic.3 For buyers this means many sailings, competition between terminals and options on both the Marmara and Mediterranean coasts.

Trucks on ships: the RoRo bridge to Europe

RoRo (roll on, roll off) ferries carry loaded trucks and trailers across the Mediterranean, skipping long road transits through several borders. In 2024 Turkish RoRo lines carried 706,387 vehicles on international routes. The busiest lines run from Tuzla, Çeşme, Ambarlı, Yalova and Tekirdağ to Trieste in Italy, and from Yalova, İzmir and Tekirdağ to Sète in France.2 In the first ten months of 2025 more than 600,000 RoRo vehicles were carried, according to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure.4 For a buyer in Germany, France or Italy, a trailer loaded at a Turkish factory can reach a European distribution centre without being unloaded on the way.

[Picture 2]

Rail and the Middle Corridor

The Middle Corridor, also called the Trans Caspian International Transport Route, links China and Central Asia with Europe through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye. The OECD notes that the route has gained importance since 2022 as an alternative to routes through Russia.5 The World Bank found that container traffic on the corridor grew 33% in 2022, and expects trans Caspian volumes to triple to 11 million tonnes by 2030. It also notes that average transit times are still long and could be halved with reforms at borders and ports.6

Türkiye's part of the route includes the Baku Tbilisi Kars railway, opened in 2017, and the Marmaray tunnel under the Bosphorus, which carried the first freight train from China to Europe in November 2019.7 On the domestic side, the Ministry has said Türkiye's network of rail logistics centres will grow to 13 with the opening of the Kayseri Boğazköprü centre.8

What this means when you source

  • Shorter lead times to Europe and the Middle East, with a choice of road, RoRo, sea and rail.

  • Smaller and more frequent shipments become practical, which lowers stock and cash tied up in transit.

  • More resilience: if one route is disrupted, another is usually available.

[Picture 3]

On Turki.sh, buyers can add freight, customs and inspection to a request and receive quotes from verified logistics providers alongside supplier offers.

Sources

 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page