YILPORT HOLDING ANNOUNCES NEW BUSINESS PLANS FOR 2020 AND BEYOND
Robert Yuksel Yildirim, the Founder and Chairman of YILPORT Holding, took the helm at the company as CEO, after Christian Blauert stepped down in December 2019. In YILPORT Holding’s driving seat, Executive Chairman & CEO Robert Yildirim announced his new vision, his short-term and mid-term business plans for the company.
“We revised our growth strategy and 5-year business plan for 2020-2025, in line with our target to rank among the top 10 international container terminal operators by 2025.
YILPORT will focus on organic growth in 2020. We will prioritize efficiency increase across our current portfolio of 22 terminals in 10 countries. We are looking forward to growing throughput volumes, and enlarge some of our terminals to elevate their annual handling capacities. 2020 will be the year of expansion and modernization at YILPORT. We place emphasis on value-added projects and state-of-the-art equipment; thus we will boost productivity through process excellence.
We are currently engaged in final phases to start operations in two container terminals in 2020; Taranto Container Terminal in Italy, and Gulfport Terminal in Mississippi, USA. We plan to revamp the Taranto Container Terminal and bring annual capacity up to 1.5 million TEU. At Gulfport, we committed to reaching 600,000 TEU annual throughput in 2 years with immediate investments, after taking over the terminal in the second half of 2020.
In Ecuador’s Puerto Bolívar, we are expanding the port by constructing the 450-meter long second container berth with 6 new STS cranes and 18 e-RTG’s from Mitsui E&S. 2 STS’s with 22-row outreach plus 6 e-RTG’s shipped from Japan this month. The remaining 4 STS’s with 24-row outreach and 12 e-RTG’s are going to be delivered at the end of 2020 or in the first days of 2021. All these e-RTG’s are 1-over-6 high and 7+1 wide. We also received 2 MHC’s from Gottwald for super-post-Panamax cranes in October 2019, and they are in operation. Hence, the annual capacity of the terminal will reach 1 million TEU.
In October 2019, we added 4 new e-RTGs at YILPORT Gebze terminal in Turkey. They helped us to improve the yard and berth productivity. On the other hand, we just ordered 4 new STS’s with 23-row outreach and 6 new e-RTG’s for our Gemport terminal in Turkey.
We constructed a 400-meter long additional container berth at Gävle Container Terminal in Sweden. We are preparing a new yard for automated e-RTG operations. For this reason, we have ordered 3 STS’s with 22-row outreach from Mitsui E&S, and 6 automated e-RTG’s with 1-over-6 height and 7+1 wide from Konecranes. These cranes will be delivered in the first quarter of 2021.
In Portugal, we have ordered 6 e-RTG’s for Leixões Container Terminal in Porto, and 6 e-RTG’s for Liscont Container Terminal in Lisbon from Konecranes. These cranes will be delivered in the first half of 2021. In addition, we will sign a new contract with Mitsui E&S to order 4 new STS cranes with 22-row outreach. We expect to receive these cranes from Japan in the first quarter of 2022.
In Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala, we purchased 4 new MHC’s to handle the super-post-Panamax container vessels. Two of those cranes were purchased from Liebherr, and two from Gottwald.
YILPORT Looking Forward to the Second Phase of Acquisitions
After our intensive investments for terminal equipment and cranes in 2019 and 2020, YILPORT will be ready to serve our customers more productive and more efficient. In addition to organic growth, YILPORT will continue its second round of acquisitions, especially pursuing gateway terminals in emerging markets. We will try to acquire one or two ports per year in line with our typical growth strategy.
In the mid-term, we plan to collaborate with infrastructure, pension, and sovereign funds to make some sizeable acquisitions. YILPORT will welcome major financial investors to team up with us for win-win investments. YILPORT Holding will continue to look for investments in Europe, North America, Latin America and Africa, that offer potential growth.
On the other hand, we will continue to value our talented human resources as the crown jewels of our organization. In 2020, we will also invest in talent development via Yildirim and YILPORT Academy. In order to grow in the future sustainably and healthy, we will reorganize YILPORT Holding’s executive management structure in Istanbul headquarters and regional offices.
We are looking forward to the new decade’s investments with excitement. We believe YILPORT will become the niche global container terminal operator after our strategic investment projects with our unique game-changer can-do attitude and customer-oriented service.