Turkey’s Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry has reported that a total of 41,112 vessels passed through the Bosphorus Strait last year carrying nearly 639 million tons of cargo. Of those, 26,632 required a harbor pilot meaning that they were in international transit. The Strait also saw a growing number of larger ships, with 317 of the transited vessels having a length of more than 985 feet.
Turkey is planning to launch construction of a new waterway to bypass the Bosphorus this year, the 28-mile-long Canal Istanbul, which will have a daily vessel passage capacity of 185 when finished in 2026. It is to be built west of Istanbul’s city center to expand transit capacity in and out of the Black Sea.
