Port of Iskenderun

The Gulf of Iskenderun is where container, bulk and industrial traffic meet in the eastern Mediterranean. This page covers the ports on the Iskenderun side of the bay, the official anchorages and how to follow this traffic with VesselCall.

Port profile: location, operator and cargo

The Port of Iskenderun lies in the Iskenderun district of Hatay province, in front of the city center. The former state railways port was transferred on December 30, 2011 for 36 years and is now run by LimakPort Iskenderun. Its service list covers container, dry bulk, general cargo and project cargo handling, plus Ro-Ro and Ropax services.

More terminals line the eastern shore of the bay to the north:

• Sarıseki and the industrial zones: Assan Port of Kibar Holding (containers and cargo), plus the Gübretaş, Yazıcı, Tosyalı and Atakaş ports
• Payas: İsdemir port (dry bulk and general cargo)
• Dörtyol: BOTAŞ’s LNG/FSRU terminal and liquid cargo terminals

The Iskenderun regional harbour master oversees the area. The Ceyhan oil terminals on the western shore belong to a separate harbour master and are covered on our Ceyhan page.

Vessel traffic and anchorages

Iskenderun’s traffic is made up of container ships, dry bulk and general cargo ships, Ro-Ro ships, and liquid cargo and LNG ships. LimakPort runs Ro-Ro and Ropax services to the port of Duba in Saudi Arabia. According to Türkiye’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, 4,175 vessels called in the Iskenderun harbour master’s area in 2025. The same year, the Iskenderun regional harbour master handled 70.9 million tons of cargo, the third highest in Türkiye.

The Iskenderun section of Türkiye’s Ports Regulation (Limanlar Yönetmeliği) defines six anchorages. We calculated the distances below from the official coordinates, measured from the port basin:

The four pilot boarding points lie along the bay, about 2-13 nm from the port.

Which service companies find work in Iskenderun?

• Surveyors: Draft and loading surveys for bulk and industrial shipments, and damage surveys for containers and project cargo. See marine surveyors.
• Ship chandlers: Bulk carriers waiting at anchor and regular container services. See our page for ship chandlers.
• Technical service and spare parts: Engine, electrical and deck service for ships at anchor and at berth.
• Ship agents: Container, bulk and Ro-Ro ships across a bay with many terminals.

How VesselCall monitors the Port of Iskenderun

In Outreach, you select Iskenderun and set a range (radius). We suggest 18 nautical miles: that circle covers the port, the terminals at Sarıseki, Payas and Dörtyol, the four pilot boarding points and all six anchorages, including No. 5 (B) for FSRU and LNG ships. The Ceyhan terminals, about 20 nm away, stay outside. Part of Ceyhan’s eastern anchorage falls inside, but a vessel never gets a second e-mail within 7 days. To watch only the city port and nearby anchorages, 8 nm is enough.

VesselCall detects cargo ships, tankers and passenger ships inside the range and filters out tugs, pilot boats, fishing boats and yachts by default. Using the vessel’s IMO number, it identifies the ship manager or commercial manager, then the ISM manager, then the registered owner, and sends your introduction e-mail from your own domain, in the recipient’s language.

The Data package records port calls at Iskenderun independently of e-mail sending: arrival, departure, length of stay, and whether the ship waited at anchor or at berth. Period reports show vessel types, flags and the most frequent ship managers, with CSV or Excel export. Records build up from the day monitoring starts.