Four Turkish ports have been listed among the world's top 100 ports in 2023, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said on Saturday.

In a written statement, the minister said that the ports of Ambarlı, Kocaeli, Mersin and Tekirdağ ranked in the 100 ports list ("One Hundred Ports 2023") prepared by Lloyd's, one of the U.K.'s leading news portals.

Ambarlı Port climbed in the ranking by 10 spots from the 74th to the 64th place, the minister said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Kocaeli Port, which ranked 89th in the previous year, rose to 85th place, while Mersin Port, which ranked 92nd, rose to 91st place and Tekirdağ Port, which ranked 100th in the previous list preserved its position.

In his remarks, Uraloğlu pointed out the "remarkable success in Ambarlı Port's container handling volume," explaining that the container handling volume at the port rose in line with the growth of Türkiye’s maritime trade in 2023, reaching the highest level in nine years and increasing by 10.6% compared to the previous year.

As the country’s maritime trade gathered pace, the number of containers handled in Turkish ports increased by 1.5% compared to the previous year and reached 12.6 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) according to the minister.

The highest amount of container handling took place within the boundaries of Ambarlı Regional Port Authority, Uraloğlu said.

In 2023, a total of 3.17 million TEU containers were handled in the facilities operating within the Ambarlı Regional Port Authority, he added.

Uraloğlu also noted that the amount of container handling in the administrative area of ​​Kocaeli Regional Port Authority increased by 4.8% last year compared to the previous year.

"The amount of container handling in Kocaeli Port Authority, which was 2.06 million TEU in 2022, reached 2.16 million TEU in 2023," he stated.

Top ports on Llyod's lists were dominated by Asian ports with China's Shanghai taking the top spot, Singapore ranking second and Ningbo-Zhoushan also in China being third.