The Port of Ambarli is located in Turkey on the northern shores of the Sea of Marmara off the Aegean Sea. The Port of Ambarli is about 26 kilometers south-southwest of the Port of Istanbul, and it serves the greater Istanbul metropolitan area.

The Port of Ambarli was first conceived in 1989 when Kumport Port Services and Logistics Trade Company Inc. decided to move its facilities from the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul due to the rapid urbanization taking place in the area at the time. The first development plan for the Port of Ambarli was approved that year.

In 1992, Turkey's Ministry of Transport established ALTAS Ambarli Port Facilities Trade Company Inc. to operate and manage the Port of Ambarli. The layout plan for the Port of Ambarli was approved by the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement in 1993. The new port consolidated the services of existing terminals in the Port of Ambarli under a single umbrella to support the needs for the Istanbul region and supplement other ports in the region like the Port of Haydarpasa and the Port of Istanbul.

By 1998, increasing volumes of trade and cargo, liberalization of Turkey's economy, and the need to accommodate larger merchant vessels led to plans to expand the Port of Ambarli. At the turn of the century, it was decided to further expand the Port of Ambarli to accommodate increasing traffic in containerized cargoes.

ALTAS Ambarli Liman Tesisleri Ticaret AS (ALTAS Ambarli Port Facilities Trade Company Inc.) (ALTAS) is the port authority for the Port of Ambarli. This general management company is responsible for managing the port, maintaining and improving Port of Ambarli infrastructure, ensuring the port's environmental integrity, and providing security for the Port of Ambarli. ALTAS seeks to assure the continuity of operations of the port's seven terminals and to continuously improve the port to maintain a strong competitive position.

• representing the Port of Ambarli to the public and maintaining positive relationships
• managing and protecting common areas of the port
• coordinating traffic and activities between the terminals in the Port of Ambarli
• developing joint plans for specific projects, including port infrastructure projects
• maintaining the common areas and keep port facilities clean

In 2008, the Port of Ambarli handled a total of 2.3 million TEUs of containerized cargo, 186 thousand vehicles, 226 thousand tons of bulk cargoes, and more than 3.8 million tons of general cargo.

In 2008, the Marport (the Port of Ambarli's main container terminal) handled over 1.5 million TEUs of containerized cargo. Marport consists of the Marport Main Terminal, Marport West Terminal, and Marport East Terminal (Piers 1, 2, and 3 of Kumport). The Main Terminal in the Port of Ambarli covers an area of 170 thousand square meters and has capacity to handle 600 thousand TEUs per year and to stow 11.5 thousand TEUs. The terminal includes 165 reefer outlets. The container freight station covers 10 thousand square meters. The pier is 800 meters long with alongside depth of 14.5 meters. The Main Terminal has over 7.5 thousand square meters of storage area.

Marport's West Terminal at the Port of Ambarli covers 170 thousand square meters. It has capacity to stow 11.5 thousand TEUs and to handle 600 thousand TEUs per year. The West Terminal has 96 reefer outlets, and the container freight station covers five thousand square meters. The Port of Ambarli's Marport West Terminal pier is 700 meters long with alongside depth of 14.5 meters. The West Terminal also has more than 4.7 thousand square meters of storage area.

The Port of Ambarli's Kumport Terminal handles general cargo, containers, and roll-on/roll-off cargoes. In 2008, 1451 vessels called at the Kumport Terminal carrying 649 thousand TEUs of containerized cargo and 188 thousand tons of general cargo.

The Kumport Terminal in the Port of Ambarli covers 400 thousand square meters and has capacity to handle a million TEUs per year. The container yard has capacity for 5709 TEUs, and it includes 144 reefer plugs. The Kumport Terminal's container freight station covers ten thousand square meters, and the terminal has a 6.7 thousand square meter warehouse and an empty container depot of 30.3 thousand square meters.

The Port of Ambarli's Kumport Terminal has a total of 2080 meters of berths. Piers 1, 2, and 3 are considered the Port of Ambarli's Marport East Terminal. Pier 1 is 450 meters long with alongside depth of 13.5 meters, and it is dedicated to containers. Piers 2 and 3 handle both containers and general cargo, and each is 370 meters long. Pier 2 has alongside depth of 14 meters, and Pier 3 has alongside depth of 12.5 meters.

The Kumport Terminal's Piers 4 and 5 handle containers and general cargo. Each pier is 370 meters long. Pier 4 has alongside depth of 12.5 meters, and Pier 5 has alongside depth of 12 meters. Finally, Kumport's Pier 6, which handles ordinary cargo, is 150 meters long with alongside depth of 9 meters.

The Kumport Port Services and Logistics Industry and Trading Co. operates a private port, Kumport, at the Port of Ambarli. The private terminal contains 7 additional berths (beyond the six described above) that handle general and bulk cargoes, containers, and rolling units. Berths 7, 8, and 10 handle general cargo and containers. Berth 7 is 250 meters long with alongside depth of 12 meters. Berth 8 is 120 meters long with alongside depth of 10 meters, and Berth 10 is 250 meters long with alongside depth of 12 meters.

The Port of Ambarli's Kumport Terminal Berth 9, handling containers and roll-on/roll-off cargoes, is 120 meters long with alongside depth of 10 meters. At 250 meters long with alongside depth of 10 meters, Berth 11 is dedicated to general cargoes. Berth 12 is 120 meters long with alongside depth of 10 meters, and it serves bulk cargoes. Berth 13 serves both bulk cargoes and domestic roll-on/roll-off cargoes. It is 150 meters long with alongside depth of 9 meters. The private Kumport Terminal contains 310 thousand square meters of open storage areas and 6.2 thousand square meters of closed warehouse in the customs zone. The container freight station, a closed warehouse, covers 500 square meters.

In addition to the Kumport Terminal, the Port of Ambarli complex contains several other private ports. The Akcansa Terminal in the Port of Ambarli, owned and operated by Akcansa Cimento Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., is an important exporter and one of Turkey's leading companies. In 2005, the Port of Ambarli's Akcansa Terminal exported 7.7 million tons of cement. The terminal handles about two million tons of bulk and 1.5 million tons of general cargoes each year. The terminal includes a car park covering 2.5 thousand square meters. Berths 1 and 2, each 220 meters long with alongside depth of 11.5 meters, handle general and bulk cargoes. Quay 1, which is 200 meters long with alongside depth of 8 meters, handles only bulk cement. The terminal includes a roll-on/roll-off ramp for domestic cargoes. The Akcansa Terminal at the Port of Ambarli includes 18 thousand square meters of open storage area and a 2.4 thousand square meter closed warehouse.

The Port of Ambarli's Mardas Terminal is owned and operated by Mardas Marmara Maritime Management Company Inc. Its berthing pier is 915 meters long with alongside depths from 10 to 14.5 meters; however, dredging is underway that will bring the entire pier to 14.5 meters depth. The Mardas Terminal at the Port of Ambarli handles containers and general cargo. In 2006, the Mardas Terminal handled 198.5 thousand TEUs of containerized cargo, and its goal is 300 thousand TEUs per year. The terminal has off-dock container storage areas of 126 thousand square meters, including indoor, outdoor, and customs areas. The terminal has a 58 thousand square meter stack yard with capacity for six thousand TEUs. It also has an on-dock bonded warehouse of almost 1.7 thousand square meters that can store up to 600 pallets at the same time.

The Set Cimento Group operates the Port of Ambarli's Total Oil Turkey Terminal. The 200 meter long pier, with alongside depths from 8 to 14 meters, can accommodate vessels to 40 thousand DWT. The terminal handles clean petroleum products like gasoline, oil, and kerosene. The berthing platform has no vessel length or width restrictions. The mooring dolphins have an inner depth of 13 meters and an outer depth of 25 meters. The offshore platform is a total of 200 meters long.