Skip to content
Invest HatayInvest Hatayby Burç Consulting

Boat Maintenance & Maritime Logistics Investment

İskenderun Port's freight volumes and a growing local boating population together create demand for boat maintenance, repair and specialized maritime logistics services currently underserved on Hatay's coast.

Boats undergoing maintenance at a shipyard

Boat owners and commercial vessel operators along Hatay's coast currently rely heavily on maintenance and repair facilities outside the province, which adds cost and downtime. A dedicated boat maintenance yard, paired with maritime logistics support services around İskenderun Port, addresses both the growing local boating population and commercial freight operators.

What Project Types Are Worth Considering?

  • Boat maintenance and repair yard
  • Haul-out and hull-cleaning facility
  • Maritime logistics and freight-forwarding service near the port
  • Marine equipment supply and chandlery

Which Areas Should You Consider?

İskenderun, anchored by the port, is the primary location for both maintenance yards and logistics services. Madenli offers a complementary site serving marina-based leisure boats specifically.

Licensing and Permit Process

  • Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure maritime operating permit
  • Environmental compliance for boatyard operations (waste handling, hull treatment)
  • Port authority access arrangements for logistics services
  • Business opening and operating license

Incentives and Support

Region 6 incentives apply to maritime service investments; logistics operations tied to port freight can also draw on trade-sector support programs.

See our Industrial Zone Investment Consulting service

What to Keep in Mind

Environmental compliance for boat maintenance, particularly waste and hull-treatment handling, is a stricter regulatory area than most service businesses; planning for this from the start avoids costly retrofits later.

Sources

From the official data

Coast and Maritime: The Development Agency's 2025 Findings

According to DOĞAKA's 2025 Activity Report, the Madenli Yacht Harbour entered service with the agency's support; under the 2025 CMDP, a capacity-increase and tourism-diversification project for the harbour and the Hatay Surf Centre project were approved. The report also states that “there is no boat/yacht maintenance and repair centre in the region”.

IndicatorValueYearSource
Madenli Yacht Harbour Capacity Increase and Tourism Diversification Project (target: 2 seafood-gastronomy restaurants)Approved in 2025 CMDP; support contract signed2025[1]
Hatay Surf CentreApproved in 2025 CMDP; completion target April 20262025[1]
Samandağ Surf School: earthquake-affected young people trained1,0322025[1]
Boat/yacht maintenance and repair centre (in the region)None exists (report finding)2025[1]
İskenderun Waterfront Improvement (coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change)Under way; part of the agency's “Blue Hatay” vision2025[1]

What does this data mean for an investor?

This table is not demand data but a public body's inventory finding: the absence of a ready boat-maintenance and repair centre in the region is an institutionally recognised gap for marina and boat-maintenance investment. But a “no centre” finding does not show that demand is sufficient; berth numbers, boat numbers and visiting-yacht numbers are not in this source. Public and agency investment at Madenli (see the public investment programme block) builds the infrastructure base; the operating model and occupancy have to be tested by the investor (interpretation).

Limitation: The source is the development agency's own statement about its activities; project completion dates are targets and may slip. The sentence “no centre exists” reflects the period in which the 2025 report was written; whether a private facility has opened since should be checked separately.

Pages related to this data

Sources

  1. [1] DOĞAKA, 2025 Activity Report (data period: 2025)

Port Cargo and Exports: Official Volumes

According to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Turkish ports handled 553,268,303 tonnes in 2025; the İskenderun Regional Port Authority handled 70,905,737 tonnes, third after Aliağa (89,507,150 tonnes) and Kocaeli (83,939,975 tonnes). In the Ministry of Trade's exports-by-province-of-activity table, Hatay ranked 11th in 2023 with USD 5,170 million.

IndicatorValueYearSource
İskenderun Regional Port Authority: cargo handled (tonnes)70,905,7372025[1]
Türkiye total port cargo (tonnes)553,268,3032025[1]
İskenderun's share of the national total12.8%2025[1]
Hatay exports by province of activity (USD million)5,8562022[2]
Hatay exports (USD million; annual change −11.7%)5,1702023[2]
Share of Türkiye's exports (Türkiye: USD 255,809 million)2.0%2023[2]
Hatay exports, single month (USD million; +11.9%)505 → 565Sep 2024 → Sep 2025[3]

What does this data mean for an investor?

The İskenderun Regional Port Authority handles 12.8% of the cargo moved through Turkish ports and trails only Aliağa and Kocaeli. This volume shows that Hatay remained one of the country's main cargo gateways even after the earthquake. Hatay's exports fell 11.7% in 2023 to USD 5,170 million; in September 2025 monthly exports rose +11.9% on the same month of the previous year. A single month does not prove an annual recovery; the annual 2024–2025 figures are not in this compilation.

What it means for an investor: port and export volumes are the most concrete official gauges of the scale of demand for warehousing, bonded areas, logistics centres and export-oriented production. But how much of the port tonnage is cargo produced in or destined for Hatay, as opposed to transit, cannot be separated from these data; cargo type and country breakdowns should be queried separately before investing.

Limitation: The port figure is the sum of all ports under the İskenderun Regional Port Authority and has no cargo-type or country breakdown. The export table is based on place of production (province of activity), which differs from head-office-based tables. Annual provincial exports for 2024 and 2025 (the Ministry's relevant file could not be accessed) and the sector breakdown of exports are not in this compilation; September 2025 is a single-month figure.

Pages related to this data

Sources

  1. [1] Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, port cargo-handling record announcement (2025; 31 January 2026) (data period: 2025)
  2. [2] Ministry of Trade, Exports by Province of Activity (annual table, 2022–2023) (data period: 2022–2023)
  3. [3] Ministry of Trade, Exports by Province of Activity, September 2025 (data period: September 2025)

Figures come from official sources; interpretations are Invest Hatay's own and are not investment advice.

Frequently asked questions about boat maintenance & maritime logistics investment

Both segments currently go underserved locally; we help you evaluate which is the stronger near-term opportunity for your investment.

Related Investment Opportunities

Maritime, Port & Marina InvestmentsMadenli Marina Investment

Let's shape your maritime service investment together

Tell us your service focus, location and budget, and we'll map out a plan tailored to you.

Get Free ConsultationMessage on WhatsApp