Interview of the week - KITA Logistics - Turkey

Tell us a few words about your company.

KITA Logistics, the Turkish member of The Heavy Lift Group since 2003 is celebrating its 25^th year anniversary this year.

As KITA is busy driving forward the development of the company in 2020, it plans to grow again in the project cargo logistics segment.

KITA was established in 1995 by its President Ercan Ataman, who is the major stakeholder in the company. KITA provides all logistics services under a single roof, be it air, sea, trucking or rail transport.

Where are your offices located?

KITA’s offices are located in Turkey, Kazakhstan and Germany, where in Germany the main line of business is trucking and warehousing at this point.

Which ports are mainly used for project cargo in Turkey?

In Turkey, typically, Derince, Ambarli, Izmir, Mersin and Iskenderun ports are used to handle project cargo. Ports are well equipped with shore cranes and for super heavies, and then there are mobile cranes available where non geared vessels are used.

What kind of projects do you handle?

Turkey is an interesting and attractive market in terms of project cargo: power plants including hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, coal and natural gas, power transformers, petrochemical plants, boilers, infrastructure projects such as bridges, subway systems and tunnels are some of the project work that has been done in the country recently. Kita has been involved in almost any field of project cargo transport. Furthermore, there are several nuclear power plants to be constructed soon and that will create additional opportunities.

When it comes to project cargo, KITA has significant experience since the start of the company and is a well known brand name in project logistics.

We have had some years where we have handled close to 500,000 frt of project cargo. Once the business is back on track globally, there is still this possibility.

What is the current situation of the shipping industry in Turkey?

The shipping industry has many players in the country including the multinational forwarders, eligible shipbrokers, as well as heavy transport companies. The size of the country makes it a center for project cargo management and the Turkish heavy transport fleet is also used in the neighboring countries.

There has been a slowdown in investments and project cargo volumes in 2019 for local and global reasons. However, as soon as the coronavirus problem is over, there will again be a serious growth due to the backlog of goods to be shipped.

How could one approach KITA Logistics?

For any inquiries for project cargo, you can write to project@kitalogistics.com and you will quickly reach our experienced project cargo professionals at Kita Logistics.