The Turkish International Roll-on/Roll-off Industry : Analysis of the Industry and the Strategies of the Companies on the European Lines

Abstract: Ro-ro transportation is a type of short-sea shipping where the wheeled cargo is transported by ro-ro (roll-on/roll-off) vessels.This transportation type is different than other sea shipping transportations such as container shipping. The international ro-ro industry between Turkey and Europe has grown significantly in the past decades mostly due to the problems that Turkish international freight operators faced on the land routes through European countries. Currently, there are three companies operating ro-ro on the European lines; U.N. Ro-Ro, Alternative Ro-Ro and Ulusoy Ro-Ro. U.N. Ro-Ro is the market leader with 65% market share and is also the fourth largest ro-ro operator in terms of capacity in lanemeters. Alternative Ro-Ro is the second largest ro-ro operator with 23% market share and Ulusoy Ro-Ro is the third with 12%. The companies emerged at different times in the market with different resources and strategies. Through archival studies and interviews, this thesis focuses on the analysis of the ro-ro industry with PESTLE Analysis and Michael Porter’s Five Forces and the strategies of the existing ro-ro operators in the market. PESTLE Analysis presented that factors that affect export and import volumes such as political and economical factors affect the ro-ro industry the most. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis presented that the power of buyers, the threat of land transportation as substitute and rivalry are high, the power of suppliers is medium, and the threat of new entrant and container shipping as substitute are low. The most commonly used strategies are differentiation, diversification, alliance and specialization strategies.