Freight Costs Are Our Backs, Railway to Corum is Necessary

Naki Özkubat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Çorum Commodity Exchange, stated at the press conference he held at the Stock Exchange that the biggest obstacle in front of investors in Çorum is high-speed train and freight transportation, which has not been done in Çorum for years, and said, “Freight costs are crippling all investors. If Çorum is to develop, this problem needs to be resolved,” he said.

Naki Özkubat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Çorum Commodity Exchange, met with members of the press at the Exchange. Çorum Commodity Exchange Council President Yılmaz Kaya and Çorum Chamber of Agriculture President Mehmet Sayan attended the meeting.

Özkubat said that the biggest obstacle in front of investors in Çorum is high-speed train and freight transportation, which has not been possible in Çorum for years. Reminding that production in Çorum is decreasing due to increasing freight costs, Özkubat said, “We are losing all industrialists. If investments are to continue in Çorum, if something is to be done for the development of the city, high-speed freight train transportation must be established. I don't know what the cost of this will be. But as long as this is not done, provinces like Çorum, such as ours, that are aimed at development and working, are losing.”

'CORUM'S PEOPLE AND INVESTORS ARE WORKING'

Noting that there are people who love to work in Çorum, Özkubat said, “Even if you go to İzmir today, everyone says, 'Çorumlu carried concrete to the sixth and seventh floors on a tin back at that time'. Çorumlu is famous for its hard work. Wherever you go in Turkey, this is the way it is. So is Çorum's investor. However, freight costs are plaguing us all. If Çorum is to develop, this problem must be solved, that is, the freight train of the high-speed train must be created here. Shipping costs have increased a lot, the price we pay for transportation is 5 percent higher than other provinces. We cannot bear these costs, we cannot bear them,” he said.

'SECTORS STARTED TO SLIDE OUTSIDE'

Expressing that there have been problems in transportation recently, Özkubat said: “There is no transportation when we want, if the load is mutual, you can carry the transportation cheaply. As the production decreases here, you receive the product and you have to send the product, but since the product is not loaded here, they write you one and a half times more for the transportation cost of the product when the vehicle arrives. For these reasons we mentioned, production in Çorum started to decrease gradually, you know, unfortunately the brick sector started to shrink gradually, it was one of the sectors that carried a lot of load. In other words, as the sectors decrease and some sectors start to shift outward, unfortunately you lose.”

Source: Çorumhaber