Impact of Türkiye-Syria Earthquake on Shipping Industry

Recently on February 6th, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 and a series of aftershocks reverberated through the region struck Türkiye and Syria causing severe damage to the households and civil infrastructure in both countries. The earthquake also caused significant damage to port infrastructure along the southeastern ports of Türkiye, particularly to the port of Iskenderun, disrupting operations and forcing carriers to divert shipments to neighbouring ports.

Ports affected by the earthquake

The port most affected by the impact of the earthquake is the Port of Iskenderun. Iskenderun is one of the two major container hubs on the southeastern shores of Türkiye. The port has suffered severe structural damage and has ceased all operations until further notice. Currently, port officials are unsure of when operations will resume and the damage caused by the earthquake is still being assessed. All other ports located along the southern shores including Mersin and Ceyhan are fully operational at this moment.

Due to the port closure of Iskenderun, major carriers are diverting shipments to the neighbouring ports or are being held at transhipment ports. Several carriers have issued advisories regarding the redirection of shipments, including Maersk, CMA CGM, and Hapag-Lloyd. The Port of Mersin (Türkiye) and ports in Egypt are expected to receive the bulk of the diverted containers. Ship traffic is expected to increase in these ports in the upcoming days.

Vessels affected by the earthquake

We’ve compiled a short list of vessels impacted for our clients whose schedule has been changed because of this disruption and rerouted to bigger container hubs in Egypt (Alexandria and Damietta):

In case you would like to check if any of your containers have been affected, contact our team and we can assist you with complimentary container tracking for Türkiye during this difficult time.