A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on 6 Feb. It is considered as the strongest one since 1999, and massive casualties, severe damage, and violent fires came along.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on 6 Feb. It is considered as the strongest one since 1999, and massive casualties, severe damage, and violent fires came along.
Some ports in Turkey fell victim to fires. For example, Iskenderun port, located in southern Turkey, caught on fire on 7 Feb.
It assumes a role of a transit hub connecting countries in the Middle East. However, the port endured such severe damage that it had to halt operations. Besides, since the container terminal has been on fire, up to hundreds of shipping containers were ablaze, too. The earthquake-stricken areas were still in a wreck so the fire has yet to be controlled by local authorities.
Global carriers have to deal with challenges. According to the container shipping giant, AP Molly Maersk, vessels bound for the port or already on the water would change destination and containers would be diverted to nearby ports such as Port of Mersin (in Turkey ) and Port Said (in Eygpt). As for the COSCO shipping line, it decided to suspend all the bookings bound for Port of Iskenderun until it gets back to the normal state.
