Port of Izmir (Alsancak)

Alsancak is Izmir’s downtown cargo port and its cruise gateway. This page explains how the port is set up, where ships anchor, and how you can follow that traffic with VesselCall.

Port profile: location, operator and cargo

The Port of Izmir lies in the city center, at Alsancak, on the eastern end of the Gulf of Izmir. The port belongs to the Türkiye Wealth Fund. Since August 1, 2026, its cargo operations have been run by Alport Alsancak Liman İşletmeciliği A.Ş., part of Alport, the port brand of the Albayrak Group. The passenger pier where cruise ships berth was kept out of that handover.

According to the new operator’s announcement, cargo operations at the port cover:

• Containers and a container freight station (CFS)
• Dry bulk, general cargo, project cargo and heavy lifts
• Ro-Ro
• Rail-connected transport and warehousing

Vessel traffic and anchorages

Alsancak’s traffic is made up of container ships, general cargo and dry bulk ships, Ro-Ro ships and cruise ships. According to Türkiye’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, 1,337 vessels called in the Izmir harbour master’s area in 2025, and 51 cruise ships called the same year. The industrial ports of Aliağa belong to a separate harbour master’s area and are not part of these figures.

Ships bound for the inner gulf pass through the middle part of the gulf. The Izmir section of Türkiye’s Ports Regulation (Limanlar Yönetmeliği) defines four anchorages. We calculated the distances below from the official coordinates, measured from the port basin:

The pilot boarding point is about 2 nm west of the port.

Which service companies find work in Izmir?

• Ship chandlers: Cruise calls and regular container services. Because the port is inside the city, delivery distances are short. See our page for ship chandlers.
• Ship agents: Container lines, Ro-Ro sailings, project cargo and cruise calls. See ship agents.
• Technical service and spare parts: Fast access from the city to ships at berth.
• Surveyors: Loading surveys for project cargo and heavy lifts, and container damage surveys.

How VesselCall monitors the Port of Izmir

In Outreach, you select Izmir and set a range (radius). We suggest 17 nautical miles: that circle covers anchorages No. 1 and 2 in the inner gulf and No. 3 and 4 in the middle gulf. If you only want ships close to the port, 5 nautical miles is enough to cover the inner gulf anchorages. Aliağa lies about 23 nm to the north, so the two ports do not overlap, and you can add Aliağa as a separate port. If the same ship calls at both within 7 days, it does not get a second e-mail.

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. Your introduction e-mail goes out from your own company domain, in the recipient’s language.

The Data package records port calls at Izmir independently of e-mail sending: arrival, departure, length of stay, and whether the ship waited at anchor or at berth. Period reports show the split between container, Ro-Ro and cruise ships, flags and the most frequent ship managers, and you can export the list to CSV or Excel. Records build up from the day monitoring starts.