Before the upcoming Turkish Lloyd elections, the Chairman of the 48th and 49th Term Board of Directors of TMMOB GMO, Engineer Bülent Hüseyinoğlu, made the following statements in a published announcement:

During my terms as a member of the Board of Directors in the 46th and 47th Terms, we accomplished very good work in the 48th and 49th Terms. We aimed to make our chamber more active by developing the public, ship engineering, and our colleagues, both in terms of the implementation of regulations and in collaboration with other institutions in the maritime community such as the Ministry of Transport, the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs, the Shipyards and Coastal Structures Directorate, the Chamber of Shipping, and GİSBİR.

We initiated beautiful projects with our General Directorate of Maritime Affairs aimed at advancing the Turkish shipbuilding industry, and we crowned this process with regulations. I hope these efforts will result in high value-added products in our country's shipbuilding industry, contribute to the growth of our industry and employment, and lead to improvements in the welfare of our people.

Since its establishment in 1962, the Turkish Lloyd Foundation has operated with a forward-looking vision. Each term has its own dynamics, and we respectfully remember all of them. The entry process into IACS, which gained momentum during the late Professor Dr. Yücel Odabaşı's term, saw significant efforts and dedication from Turkish Lloyd employees. The entry into IACS was a long-distance marathon race that was completed over the years. It is also important to remember that the European Union's antitrust laws played a role in this, as it is crucial to accurately assess our strength. Over the years, IACS has been changing the rules of the game. What is important is that our Turkish Lloyd employees have always managed to lead Turkish Lloyd to success with high concentration, even when the rules of the game changed. We thank everyone who contributed.

Now, let’s address the current situation; although our entry into IACS was approved in November 2023, the fact that we have not yet opened any foreign offices by 2026 is a serious deficiency. Even IACS continuously questions whether Turkish Lloyd is opening offices or not.

How will the owner of an internationally trading ship feel when coming to Turkish Lloyd? How can Turkish Lloyd provide the necessary survey request on their ship?

In this period, following the suspension of the Russian Lloyd's IACS membership, many ships in the fleet have turned to other IACS member organizations; however, Turkish Lloyd has not been able to take full advantage of this opportunity.

In the case that BV loses its Turkish flag authority for the second time, many BV-classed ships have gone to other classes that are IACS members, and due to Turkish Lloyd's inability to be proactive enough, no benefits have been gained from this situation.

Let’s evaluate with numbers;

In 2015, the total number of ships was 561, with 177 of them engaged in international trade.

In 2026, the total number of ships is 585, with 211 of them engaged in international trade. A Turkish Lloyd that has entered IACS should have been able to do better than this.

In some situations, it is essential to have a dynamic and visionary structure that can turn crises into opportunities.

Like every institution, Turkish Lloyd must always have A and B plans. It is known that the largest revenue item for Turkish Lloyd is military projects.

In military projects, if Turkish Lloyd is excluded from the approval process starting tomorrow, how will financial sustainability be possible?

From this perspective, there is a need for Turkish Lloyd to work on becoming stronger in its areas of activity urgently. We must maintain our success in military projects in commercial projects as well.

In the industrial sector, we need to plan what new services we can provide in the industry, especially in collaboration with the Turkish Insurance Association and the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. With the experiences of these institutions, Turkish Lloyd can create new areas of work for itself and grow.

While it is known that there are serious industrial works regarding pressure vessels and boilers in our country, these works need to be activated more widely, and Turkish Lloyd should contribute to entering the international market. In this regard, joint projects should be carried out with the Association of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Manufacturers.

While the Turkish Standards Institute is creating our national standards, it should first teach our manufacturers the national standards with a joint action plan, which will enhance quality; subsequently, it will pave the way for international competitiveness with Turkish Lloyd rules.

We observe that Turkish Lloyd is not acting with enough ambition and activity to achieve forward-looking goals in the current period.

There is a situation where it is inward-looking, content with the current state, and, as a result of the country’s strategy, only satisfied with military projects.

We will create a synergistic structure with the stakeholders of the Turkish Lloyd General Assembly and our own teams.

As is known, control and survey services are activities that require individual expertise. Managing individuals with the highest level of expertise harmoniously under one roof brings success to classification organizations. The success of our sector employees and our people is very high. For this reason, many of our Turkish colleagues work in foreign-owned classification organizations. We will work systematically to ensure that Turkish Lloyd is preferred by maintaining a high vision, being resolute in our demands, and focusing on our action plans.

Turkish Lloyd Foundation, TMMOB GMO quota candidates:

1. Ibrahim Karataş, GMO 960

2. Erkan Eker, GMO 1225

3. Bulent Hüseyinoğlu, GMO 1254

4. M. Selim Buğdanoğlu, GMO 1617

5. Cihan Bayrak, GMO 2073

Source: SeaNews Türkiye