Recent investments by Yilport Holding helped boost its container throughput by 36% year-on-year to 3.4m teu in the first half of 2022.
Both general cargo and roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) volumes grew in the first half of the year as well, up 6% and 3% respectively.
The Iberian terminals in Porto & Lisbon in Portugal, and Huelva and Ferrol in Spain began to grow faster after expansion projects and investments.
Yilport completed €43m (US$43.7m) investment in Leixões and a €130m (US$132m) will be completed by end of 2023.
In Huelva, Spain, four new ship-to-shore (STS) cranes helped increase berth capacity.
Overall the Iberian region terminals recorded a 5% growth in containers and 25% growth in ro-ro volumes.
Yilport Leixões was up by 4% to 360,978 teu while four new STS and three automated rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes helped boost container volumes at Liscont, with general cargo up 32% respectively.
Additionally, Yilport Ferrol welcomed the Algeciras Canaries (ACZ) service of X-PRESS Feeders.
Yilport Puerto Bolivar recorded a 26% growth with 100,000 teu driven by the shift to containerisation whilst Yilport Paita in Peru and Puerto Quetzal in Guatamala handled 138,000 teu and 98,000 teu respectively.
The port operator is set to deliver four new 24-row outreach STS from Japan to Ecuador for Puerto Bolivar at the end of this year and, in the summer of 2023, Puerto Bolivar’s handling capacity will be tripled.
In Turkey, Yilport Gebze and Gemlik terminals welcomed many new services from MEDKON Lines, CMA CGM and Maersk.
Yilport Gebze saw a 28% increase in general cargo volumes to 2.7m tonnes and a 22% increase in liquid cargo volumes compared to the same period in 2021.
General cargo volumes at Yilport Gemlik were up 11% to just over 1m tonnes whilst Yilport Yarimca in Izmit Bay recorded a 16% growth in general cargo, driven mostly by cement operations.
Yilport Solventas liquid terminal received CDI-T approval once again, growing by 8% year-on-year and handling a total of 1.7m cubic m.
The group’s aim is to keep this growth tend in the second half of the year to deliver another record-breaking “golden” year.
