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Short abstract:

This paper centers on congestion in supply chains. Based on ethnographic research in Mersin, Turkey, home to a port that has been operated by Singaporean state-held corporation PSA since 2007, I seek to disaggregate profitability, growth, and efficiency in the daily life of supply-chain capitalism.

Long abstract:

It has been noted that contemporary capitalism relies on well-managed inventories and optimized supply chains, more so than a disciplined proletariat and vertically integrated production (Tsing 2013). Lean management techniques have been extended from production onto the sphere of circulation, bringing maritime shipping to the fore—and efficiently-run, private or privatized seaports. This paper reports from ethnographic research in Mersin, Turkey—host to a port operated by Singaporean state-held corporation PSA since 2007. Port executives and employees explain the growth in the port’s trade volume since 2007 with the trope of efficiency increase under privatization. And yet, all around Mersin, talk about congestion will not stop. From freight forwarders to trade chamber representatives, many complain about long wait times for shipment release, specifically due to the port’s underinvestment in efficiency technologies. In this paper, I seek to disaggregate profitability, growth, and efficiency in the daily life of supply-chain capitalism. While profitability does motivate port executives in privatized settings, this motivation does not automatically translate into a search for increased efficiency, when profits can accrue from growth without efficiency, or even a level of congestion, given revenue from facility use rents. Actors operating in far-flung inter-Asian circuitries may find their efficiency investment motivation even further curbed if acting as the ports’ medium-term lessees. Technological efficiency is only one among many tools wielded by the overseers of global supply chains, often sacrificed for profitability to the dismay of producers and consumers, beholden to congested ports.