Turkey’s Yıldırım Holding AS has taken over operations at the Croatian port of Šibenik, located on the country’s Adriatic coast, north of Split, according to a Bloomberg report, citing an emailed statement from the Turkish group.
The port used to operate as Croatia’s main fertilizer port prior to the production halt early last year at the country’s sole fertilizer producer, Petrokemija d.d.
The takeover of Šibenik port is part of Yildirim’s acquisition of control of Petrokemija. The Turkish group signed an agreement with the Croatian producer’s biggest shareholder, Croatian oil and gas group ING d.d., and Croatian gas company Prvo Plinarsko Društvo last November to acquire Terra Mineralna Gnojiva company, which holds a 54.517% stake in Petrokemija (GM Nov. 18, 2022).
Yildirim Holding has been targeting a first-quarter 2023 production restart of Kutina-based Petrokemija, and aims for the operation to achieve full capacity operations of 1 million mt/y of fertilizers (GM Dec. 9, 2022). Production was halted over 10 months ago amid rising natural gas costs,
The port of Šibenik is a general cargo port, handling ships of up to 50,000 dwt. Yildirim port operations subsidiary Yilport is targeting €50 million (approximately $53 million at current exchange rates) at the port, aimed at turning it into a multi-purpose terminal, according to the report.