YILPORT TARANTO RESUMES WORK AFTER COVID-19
Yilport Holding continues unabatedly and in this pandemic environment unseen with physical activity to deliver “the new gateway of South Italy”, Yilport Taranto.
For this purpose, Yilport Holding not only executes Phase I projects (what is Phase 1) of 19M USD as scheduled in concession but has opted to advance Phase II (what is Phase II). Despite COVID-19, Yilport Holding is determined to complete the overall investment of 75M USD even before the project timeline within 5 years’ time. As a 49 years concession term, Yilport Taranto is projected an investment over 400M Euro for the terminal and Phase I 19M Euro is the first step of the project.
COVID-19 Pandemic is unprecedented and the impact to our lives and our human interactions have changed drastically. The socio-economic impact is starting to show itself however the changes to trade and the greater global economy are still not measurable. The changes to trade patterns and the distortion in the supply/demand equilibrium in the liner trade is already being seen and experienced globally.
At the beginning of May Konecranes’ engineering team arrived at Taranto and already started to execute necessary steps of revamping project. The arrival of team was decided towards the end of 2019, however, as a result of unfortunate COVID-19 situation, engineering team’s arrival had to be postponed. Finally, following Italy’s gradual steps toward normalization, Kone Cranes arrived at Italy, Taranto, and resumed work speeding up all steps in the project to make up for lost time caused by the pandemic. Both local teams from Taranto and Yilport Holding HQ teams from Istanbul collaborate with Konecranes to put all previously determined projects into practice to be completely ready for welcoming first vessels in the port. In spite of heavy effects of COVID-19, Yilport Taranto keeps its development plans and all related civil works are already on progress. Yilport Taranto is happy to share all project steps currently worked on and to be executed in near future to keep all business partners and all relevant parties updated.
Following project kick off held in May, related steps started to be taken in order to bring all necessary equipment onsite for promised effective port operations. At the end of the project, Yilport will have revamped 7 Ship to Shore Crane (STS), 17 Rail mounted gantry cranes (RTG), 1 Mobile harbor crane (MHC), 2 reach stackers (RS), 2 empty handlers (ECH), and existing terminal tractors and trailers. Considering the fact that all this equipment was not in use for 5-6 years, Yilport technical team and Kone Cranes team meticulously focus on reconditioning of these equipment for utmost operational efficiency at future vessel operations ensuring the high service level. As a part of overall development plan, the initial step will be to relocate 5 STS cranes to the other berth with SMTPs. Following this relocation, within the frame of Yilport Holding branding works, all cranes will be painted in Yilport colors. Once all these complementary processes are completed, commissioning of STS cranes will be finalized. As the commissioning of the smaller equipment had already started and is on progress now, revamping of STS cranes will keep being the main focus on reconditioning plans. The estimated project duration time for the whole equipment revamping will be about 1 year and after that all above equipment will be safely and properly brought back to life for productive port operations. As a part of project, the rail infrastructure and national connection will also be revamped to make maximum use of railway connection of the port. In addition to these works, with the aim of meeting the latest environmental requirements, civil works will also be executed. For the electricity supply, repairs and the upgrade of the water treatment system will be completed.
Chairman and CEO Robert Yuksel Yildirim commented on ongoing and upcoming developments in Yilport Taranto, “Even before our takeover in Taranto, we had already clarified the business strategy to be executed in the terminal as were highly aware of the potential the hinterland offers us. We are very well known by the sector and have a strong presence in the Mediterranean with Malta and our seven ports in Spain and Portugal, so our global customers’ confidence on us will help us to promote Yilport Taranto and elevate port activities by support more local economy. Currently our teams are working hard on cranes’ reconditioning to secure utmost service level. After revamping Taranto Container Terminal, we’ll bring annual capacity of the terminal up to 1.5 million Teu. I believe there is a tremendous opportunity in Taranto which we’re focusing now and setting our sales strategies on. We’ll do what we know the best, we’ll bring our global experience for further progresses by respecting local realities meanwhile. We know the business well and we will use our know-how to develop the market in the region and activate the economy which was unfortunately affected by pandemic very soon. We will show our best efforts to be align with our promises and to perfectly collaborate with local parties, market and our business partners.”
Yilport Holding, the subsidiary of Yildirim Group of Companies, currently operates 22 ports around the world and ranked 12th international container terminal operator by Drewry. Yilport Holding continues its investments to achieve its target of being ranked among the top 10 by 2025. Located on the northern coast of the gulf, in southeastern Italy, Yilport Taranto is one of the closest deep-sea terminal to main trade lanes through Gibraltar and the Suez canals in the center of the Mediterranean. Yilport Taranto is the ideal port of call for both gateway and transshipment cargoes to Europe and the rest of the world offering high-level productivity on its 1 million square meters’ land area. Thanks to its easy access to the highway network, 5 active rail platforms connect Yilport Taranto directly to the national railway system where can bind the terminal up to North Europe overland. The terminal is also eligible to serve up to ULCV sized with -16.5 meters draft. The terminal will offer 160,000 square meters of CFS and Empty Container Services area, providing stuffing, stripping, inspection, M&R, PTI, sweeping, cleaning, and empty container inspection and conditioning. In addition to container operations, Yilport Taranto terminal also provides service to bulk/general cargo, Ro-Ro, project cargo vessels.