MARITIME RELATED LOGISTICS SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PORT INDUSTRY: PORT OF IZMIR CASE

摘要

Logistics services have been used to control the flow of goods, services and information in and between plants and distribution networks strategically and in best ways. Therefore, the logistics concept could be regarded as a management and an operational strategy aiming to optimize the quality and the total cost of products by also considering the real time factor. In addition, specialized logistics services and supply chain management provide links between local areas and cities, and the national markets as well as the international markets. These services secure the integration of local production into global services and distribution chains. One of the ways to reflect a company's competitiveness in the market is measured by its capacity in delivering goods of high quality on time. In this respect, availability and costs of transport facilities play an important role. Therefore, transportation infrastructure has been one of the key elements in reaching the targets both in regional development and economic growth as well as in international trade. This study concentrates upon the developments of maritime transport related logistics services. The role of the port industry within the maritime sector is analyzed, in particular, to give a broad idea of the developments as this industry having a crucial role in international transport services. Thus, developments at sea ports are reviewed in more details in this study as they are the major operational nodes and service providing centers in the transport industry within the logistics centers in supply chains. As a result, major developments at the Port of Izmir on the west coast of Turkey are analyzed more specifically by also considering developments in the maritime related logistics services in the region.