Management
at LimakPort Iskenderun, the Turkish container terminal badly battered in this
month’s mega earthquake, have said it will take around three months to get
operations back to normal.
The port was severely damaged in the wake of the February 6 earthquake and suffered structural damage, as well as a severe blaze as containers caught fire.
The fire at the Mediterranean terminal was eventually put out after three days.
Carriers have put in alternate calls to other ports in the region this month, something they will continue to do through to late spring.
A total
of 3,670 containers were burnt in the fire, management has revealed and
clean-up operations are now underway.
Many
container stacks topped over at Iskenderun when the earthquake hit two weeks
ago sparking the fire, which then spread rapidly.
The port handles around 40,000 teu a
month.
It is located on the Mediterranean coast in
the southern province of Hatay where more than 1,200 buildings have been
destroyed from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The city lies around 120 km from
the epicentre of the quake. As well as the port damage, many roads in the area
will require fixing.
More
than 44,000 people are confirmed to have lost their lives in southeastern
Turkey and northern Syria in one of the most deadly quakes to hit the region
ever.