The Gulf of İskenderun is the region from which a significant share of Türkiye's crude steel output comes. The port, the region's rolling mills and the land border gates towards Syria and Iraq are all a short distance apart.
Having these three gathered in the same region directly reduces transport cost in steel and raw material trade.
What having the three together gains you
- A short haul from port to warehouse: transport after unloading is cheaper
- Proximity to rolling mills: haulage on domestic supply falls
- Proximity to the border gates: export shipments are shorter
- Three-way flexibility: the same stock can serve the home market or export
Calculating total cost
Looking only at the unit storage price when choosing a warehouse is misleading. Even where the square-metre price looks better at a warehouse based in İstanbul or Kocaeli, road haulage on shipments from this region usually takes that difference back.
The right calculation is: storage + port-to-warehouse haulage + warehouse-to-buyer haulage.
Which cargo it suits
Loads with a low value per unit weight and a high tonnage are the group most sensitive to haulage distance: steel coil, rebar, billet, sections and pipe.
For these products a difference of a few hundred kilometres is felt directly in the cost per tonne.
Points to watch
A regional advantage is not enough on its own; the warehouse's licence, type, code and record discipline should still be asked about.
Location gives you cheap haulage; record discipline is what stops the goods going astray. Look for both.