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Ports in Turkey: Containers, Cargo and Cruise by Port

What each harbour-master area of Turkey handles: containers, tonnes of cargo and cruise passengers, from the Ministry of Transport’s own tables.

ByAbdullah Habib
10 min read Updated: October 24, 2026
Summarize with:
Illustration: a container ship alongside a quay at dusk, two quay cranes lifting a box, stacks of orange, ochre and blue containers and mooring bollards in the foreground
Illustration: a container ship at its berth at dusk.

Türkiye’s ports handled 14.0 million container units and 553.3 million tonnes of cargo in 2025. Dock any port in the Quay below to see how many containers, how much cargo and how many cruise passengers it handled.

Ports in Türkiye, in short

Boxes, tonnes, passengers.

  • Containers: 14.0 million TEU in 2025, +3.5% on 2024. A TEU is one 20-foot container; a 40-foot one counts as two. Ambarlı, on the Marmara coast, handled 24.5% of them, more than any other area.
  • Cargo: 553.3 million tonnes in 2025, +4.0% on 2024. Aliağa, on the Aegean coast, handled the most by weight: 88.7 million tonnes.
  • Cruise: 2.1 million passengers in 2025. Kuşadası counted 995,843 of them, but most were on a stopover.
  • Latest: in January–September 2026, 10.8 million TEU (+2.7% on January–September 2025), 412.1 million tonnes (+0.6%) and 1.6 million cruise passengers (-4.1%).

Dock a port and see its three ships

Every area is drawn on one scale: a small ship is a small number. The board shows 18 areas; the national figures include all of them.

The Quay

Pick a berth, watch the ships fill

Tap a berth sign to dock that area. Tap Compare for a second berth.

Marmara

Ambarlı

Containers3,428,048 TEU+13.9% on 2024Foreign trade 67%Between Turkish ports 3%Passing through 29%Full deck = 3,428,048 TEU, the size of Ambarlı in 2025
Cargo34.1 million tonnes+9.5% on 2024Foreign trade 58%Between Turkish ports 8%Passing through 34%14.9 million tonnes loaded onto ships, 19.2 unloadedFull holds = 88.7 million tonnes, the size of Aliağa in 2025
Cruise passengersNo cruise passengers counted at Ambarlı.Every light on = 995,843 passengers, the size of Kuşadası in 2025

Ambarlı handled 3,428,048 TEU of containers in 2025, 24.5% of Türkiye’s total. 29% of the boxes were only passing through. It also handled 34.1 million tonnes of cargo, 6.2% of the total.

All 18 areas, 2025
AreaSeaContainers (TEU)Cargo (million tonnes)Cruise passengers
ZonguldakBlack Sea2,83412.1–
Karadeniz EreğliBlack Sea–9.4–
SamsunBlack Sea76,78912.820,886
TrabzonBlack Sea24,5673.121,848
IstanbulMarmara6,4195.2625,517
KocaeliMarmara2,505,67883.9–
GemlikMarmara909,52317.8–
AmbarlıMarmara3,428,04834.1–
TekirdağMarmara2,138,32750.6–
KarabigaMarmara1,67312.5–
AliağaAegean1,701,27488.7–
IzmirAegean234,2597.287,540
KuşadasıAegean––995,843
BodrumAegean––138,166
AntalyaMediterranean84,8516.520,043
MersinMediterranean1,970,69041.0–
IskenderunMediterranean869,52770.9–
CeyhanMediterranean18,33851.4–

Source: Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. The latest file is stamped 12.10.2026; checked 21.10.2026.

Ask a forwarder

Type your route. The Turkish message below is ready to copy.

Merhaba, 1 adet 40'lık konteyner için navlun teklifi rica ediyorum. Yükleme yeri: [şehir] Varış yeri: [varış yeri] Güzergâh: Ambarlı üzerinden Her güzergâh için lütfen şunları belirtin: – konteyner başına navlun ücreti – transit süresi (gün) – limanda serbest süre (free time, gün) Benden hangi belgeleri istediğinizi de bildirir misiniz? Bu güzergâh için başka bir Türk limanı daha uygunsa, lütfen onun için de teklif verin. Teşekkür ederim.

What it says Hello. Please send me a freight quote for 1 × 40-foot container. Loading place: [city]. Destination: [destination]. Route: via Ambarlı. For each route, please tell me the freight price per container, the transit time in days and the free time at the port (the days the container may stay there without extra charge). Please also tell me which documents you need from me. If another Turkish port suits this route better, please quote that too. Thank you.

The Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, part of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, publishes figures for each harbour-master area: the stretch of coast one harbour master runs.

One area is one row in every table.One area can hold several terminals.

What the ports handle three kinds of traffic

The Ministry sorts every container and every tonne into three kinds.

Cargo in 2025

Three kinds of traffic, and their shares

Foreign trade

Cargo that comes from, or goes to, a foreign port.

Between Turkish ports

Cargo that goes from one Turkish port to another: cabotage.

Passing through

Cargo that arrives from abroad by ship, pipeline, lorry or train, and leaves again on a ship for a foreign port.

Cargo by type, 2025

Five kinds of cargo, in million tonnes

  • Liquid bulkCrude oil and other liquids, carried in tanks169.7
  • Dry bulkGrain, coal or ore, carried loose in holds160.9
  • Cargo in containersGoods travelling in standard boxes144.3
  • General cargoGoods carried piece by piece, not boxed and not loose65.8
  • VehiclesDriven or lifted on and off12.4

All Turkish ports together, 553.3 million tonnes. Source: Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, cargo types table for 2025.

Containers where the boxes go

Five areas each handled well over one million container units in 2025: Ambarlı, Kocaeli, Tekirdağ, Mersin and Aliağa.

Containers, 2025

The Sea of Marmara, four container areas

Sea of MarmaraTekirdağ 2.1Ambarlı 3.4Kocaeli 2.5Gemlik 0.9Marport · KumportAsyaport

Ring size: million TEUForeign tradeBetween Turkish portsPassing through

Coast: Natural Earth, public domain.

Tekirdağ works differently: more than half of its boxes, 56%, were passing through.

The Ambarlı container terminals across the Sea of Marmara at dusk: quay cranes and stacks of boxes along the shore, ships at anchor in front
The Ambarlı container terminals, seen across the Sea of Marmara at dusk. Photo: Maderibeyza, 24 June 2007, Wikimedia Commons (cropped); CC BY-SA 3.0, file page.

Containers, 2025

Eight areas, three kinds of traffic

Foreign tradeBetween Turkish portsPassing through

AreaTEUShare of TürkiyeSplit of its boxes
AmbarlıMarmara3,428,04824.5%67.3% 3.4% 29.2%
KocaeliMarmara2,505,67817.9%87.8% 3.4% 8.8%
TekirdağMarmara2,138,32715.3%29.7% 14.3% 56.1%
MersinMediterranean1,970,69014.1%97.7% 1.6% 0.7%
AliağaAegean1,701,27412.2%85.9% 4.9% 9.2%
GemlikMarmara909,5236.5%75.7% 12.8% 11.5%
IskenderunMediterranean869,5276.2%94.3% 3.4% 2.3%
IzmirAegean234,2591.7%77.1% 22.7% 0.2%

Source: Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, container handling by harbour-master area, 2025. A TEU is one 20-foot container; a 40-foot one counts as two.

From the operators

Three terminals, each in its own figures

Marport

Ambarlı area, Beylikdüzü, Istanbul

Capacity a year
2,300,000 TEU
Land
about 530,000 m²

The Marport page

Kumport

Ambarlı area, Beylikdüzü, Istanbul

Capacity
2,100,000 TEU
Quay
2,234 m
Water depth
16.5 m
Land
482,000 m²

The Kumport page

Asyaport

Tekirdağ

Boxes the yard holds at once
94,264 TEU
Quay
2,410 m
Water depth
18 m
Land
354,000 m²

The Asyaport page

Checked 21.10.2026. Mersin International Port is on its own card in the Mersin chapter.

Mersin and its International Port

Mersin International Port is one terminal in the Mersin area.

Stacks of containers in many colours on the yard of the port of Mersin, with quay cranes and ships along the water behind them
The container terminal in the port of Mersin. Photo: SeyfettinGündoğdu, 9 October 2023, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

Mersin International Port

The quay drawn to length

Quay length 4,013 m, and the 400 m ship on it, to the same scale.
  • 8 container berths
  • 13 multi-purpose berths
  • +368 m quay, the next phase
17.6 mdeepest water at the quay
134.8 haof land, and +17.6 ha reclaimed from the sea
15quay cranes
3,600,000 TEUdesigned capacity of the terminal
400 m · 24,000 TEUships up to this size can berth

Figures from the port’s factsheet. Regions it serves: the Çukurova plain, Central Anatolia and Southeast Anatolia.

The Ministry’s tables: containers handled

1,970,690 TEUhandled in 2025 by the whole Mersin area
98%of those boxes were foreign trade
1,629,749 TEUin January–September 2026, +13.1% on January–September 2025
869,527 TEUIskenderun, the other container area on this coast, in 2025; 94% foreign trade

Cargo by weight a different order from boxes

Aliağa handled the most cargo, 88.7 million tonnes, but only 1.7 million TEU. Ambarlı handled the most boxes, 3.4 million TEU, and 34.1 million tonnes.

The areas on the board, 2025

Same ports, a different order

Cargo, million tonnes (thin bar: boxes)

  1. Aliağa88.7
  2. Kocaeli83.9
  3. Iskenderun70.9
  4. Ceyhan51.4
  5. Tekirdağ50.6
  6. Mersin41.0
  7. Ambarlı34.1
  8. Gemlik17.8
  9. Samsun12.8
  10. Karabiga12.5
  11. Zonguldak12.1
  12. Karadeniz Ereğli9.4
  13. Izmir7.2
  14. Antalya6.5
  15. Istanbul5.2
  16. Trabzon3.1

Containers, TEU (thin bar: tonnes)

  1. Ambarlı3,428,048
  2. Kocaeli2,505,678
  3. Tekirdağ2,138,327
  4. Mersin1,970,690
  5. Aliağa1,701,274
  6. Gemlik909,523
  7. Iskenderun869,527
  8. Izmir234,259
  9. Antalya84,851
  10. Samsun76,789
  11. Trabzon24,567
  12. Ceyhan18,338
  13. Istanbul6,419
  14. Zonguldak2,834
  15. Karabiga1,673
  16. Karadeniz Ereğli0
Illustration: a tanker beside a jetty with pipes and two white storage tanks, and a bulk carrier with open holds beside a dockside crane and heaps of dark and pale bulk cargo, at dusk
Illustration: a tanker and a bulk carrier at a quay.

Cargo, 2025, million tonnes

More arrives than leaves, except at Ceyhan

Unloaded from shipsLoaded onto ships

  • All Turkish ports

    323.6229.6

  • Ceyhan

    15.835.5

Passing through at Ceyhan

  1. 1Crude oil arrives from abroad by pipeline.
  2. 2At Ceyhan, a tanker loads it.
  3. 3The tanker sails for a foreign port.
57%of Ceyhan’s cargo was passing through
29.0 of 67.0million tonnes of crude petroleum, all Turkish ports: loaded in transit

Cruise who stops and who sails from here

Most of Kuşadası’s passengers were on a stopover: only 7.9% started or ended a cruise there. In Istanbul it was 35.5%.

Two cruise ships side by side at the quay in Kuşadası, seen from between their hulls, with lifeboats and rows of windows on the decks
Two cruise ships at the berth in Kuşadası, the port with the most cruise passengers in 2025. Photo: Julian Lupyan, 17 August 2024, Wikimedia Commons; CC0, file page.

Cruise passengers, 2025

Who stops, and who sails from here

  1. Arriving or departingthe passenger starts or ends a cruise at this port
  2. Passing throughthe ship only stops at this port

  1. lit = started or ended their cruise heredim = stopover

    Kuşadası 995,843 passengers 7.9% started or ended a cruise here

  2. Istanbul 625,517 passengers 35.5% started or ended a cruise here

  3. Bodrum 138,166 passengers 0.3% started or ended a cruise here

  4. Izmir 87,540 passengers 2.3% started or ended a cruise here

The white cruise ship Silver Moon alongside at Galataport on the Bosphorus, with the hillside of Beyoğlu behind it
The cruise ship Silver Moon alongside at Galataport, Istanbul. Photo: Dosseman, 12 June 2024, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

Galataport’s figures

The cruise terminal, built underground

29,000 m²of underground space
3ships it can take a day
15,000passengers it can take a day

The Galataport page

Sources

Open the source list
  1. Container handling statistics, 2024 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  2. Container handling statistics, 2025 and January–September 2025 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  3. Container handling statistics, 2026 (by harbour-master area; the notes in the country table define loading, unloading and transit) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  4. Cargo handling statistics, 2024 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  5. Cargo handling statistics, 2025 and January–September 2025 (by harbour-master area, by cargo type and by cargo group) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  6. Cargo handling statistics, 2026 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  7. Cruise passenger statistics, 2025 and January–September 2025 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  8. Cruise passenger statistics, 2026 (by harbour-master area) — Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Türkiye, checked 21.10.2026
  9. Marport: terminal details — Marport Liman İşletmeleri, checked 21.10.2026
  10. Kumport: home page — Kumport Liman Hizmetleri, checked 21.10.2026
  11. Asyaport: home page — Asyaport, checked 21.10.2026
  12. Mersin International Port: factsheet — PSA, checked 21.10.2026
  13. Galataport Istanbul: about the port — Galataport Istanbul, checked 21.10.2026

Article Information

Written by: Abdullah Habib
Published: April 4, 2022
Category: Other

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