LIVORNO – Red Sea crisis and evaluation of the repercussions on the port, logistics and industrial activities of Livorno and Piombino and the possible initiatives to be implemented.
This is the complex topic that was addressed yesterday at in the headquarters of the MTS AdSP in one extended meeting called from the president, Luciano Guerrieri, and announced well in advance almost a month ago.
Sitting at the oval table in Palazzo Rosciano, in addition to Guerrieri, the members of the Management Committee and of thePartnership Organisationfor the political-institutional part: theregional councilor at productive activities, Leonardo Marras, and the municipal councilor for ports, Barbara Bonciani.
The press note released this morning informs that the meeting served to «ftake stock of the economic situation and the impact it is having on maritime transport».
In fact, as in many other Italian ports, the decline in traffic is also visible in Livorno. The AdSP has not yet released the data, but since the beginning of the year and even more so in the last two months, just look and count the number of ships in the harbor who daily wait to enter the port, an unequivocal test bed to understand that traffic is suffering, between these especially container ships which bring greater wealth to a port and its territory. However, traffic data on rolling stock and passengers are stable.
The Red Sea crisis further and new crisis that has hit maritime transport and ports, has negative repercussions on industrial production which landed in Tuscany in –2.7% in the last three months of 2023. As well as negative effects on employment in port (-8.6% the start-up of workers of port companies).
In fact, Luciano Guerrieri spoke about this, outlining the picture of the situation, but also the priorities and strategies. So the infrastructures especially railways and the new vision of one cooperation with non-EU Mediterranean countries, as an effect of an adaptation of the new industrial chains that will arise.
THE INTERVENTION OF THE PRESIDENT LUCIANO GUERRIERI:
«The Red Sea crisis – said Guerrieri – was only the latest in a series of systemic crises that have hit the maritime industry in recent years, putting stress on the entire logistics chain and, with it, the logic of just in time, which favored globalization processes until 2020″.
Lpandemic, the grounding of the Ever Given in March 2021and, again, the impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict on the supply of raw materials and rising consumer prices, the drought problems of Panama Canal, and the war between Israel and Hamas. «All these crises have clearly represented gods critical moments for shipping, placing Italian ports faced with continuous challenges» – admits Guerrieri, underlining how the consequences of the substantial Suez blockade are now clear for all to see: «More and more ships are lengthening the route towards the Cape of Good Hope to avoid passing through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, the extension of journeys has resulted in a delay in the arrival of ships and in some cases in a clear drop of traffic, as recorded by many Italian ports”.
«The port of Livorno was not significantly impacted by this situation» – we read in the press release – «if not limited to the traffic of new cars coming from the Far East, a market segment in which there has not been a real decline but increasing inconveniences due to the delayed delivery of vehicles.
The impact of the crisis on industry and production
The president of the Livorno AdSP However, it does not intend to minimize the impact that the crisis has had on the production system and consumption: «There is no doubt – he says – that the ports of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea are experiencing a moment of suffering, like the other Italian ports».
Guerrieri cites traffic data (still provisional) for the first quarter of 2024 to support his thesis: «Between January and March – he explains – the port of Livorno recorded a general decline in almost all types of traffic, starting with containers, forest products and new cars. The only positive exceptions are represented by rolling stock and passenger trafficthe”.
This is a difficult situation that closely reflects what the local productive fabric is experiencing: «The data provided by IRPET and referring to 2023 have in fact outlined a trajectory of the regional economy that is still positive but progressively slowing down, with a decrease of production in key sectors such as paper by 19% and 26% respectively in November and December 2023. NIn the fourth quarter of 2023, industrial production in the Tuscany region fell by 2.7%” recalls the number 1 of the port authority.
The negative effects on employment in the port
The lack of dynamism in domestic and foreign demand, which has characterized the entire country and, more generally, the entire euro area, has clearly had some negative repercussions on employment in the port. In the first quarter of 2024, job starts for port company workers decreased by 8.6%. compared to the same period of the previous year (from 57,427 to 52,447).
It follows that “no port can emerge unscathed from an international context in which economic and unpredictable crises follow one another with the same regularity with which day alternates with night”. Faced with a complex and, at times worrying, picture at an international level – this is the message from the president of the AdSP – it is therefore necessary to implement various initiatives to seize new development opportunities, also in view of the update of the new Three-Year Operational Plan of the Port Authority, which will probably be presented at the end of June.
PRIORITIES AND STRATEGIES
The infrastructures
«Infrastructure development remains a priority – says the first tenant of Palazzo Rosciano -, the AdSP has done a lot of building work in this period 13 infrastructure interventions and 25 other projects they are close to going to the race.” There is not only the Darsena Europa on the horizon: «We need additional resources to develop the new areas of competence of ports, which go beyond the maritime logic in the strict sense: energy sustainability and digital transition are two central themes on which the port authority is working with strong determination. We do not believe it is unlikely that with the rotation of institutional positions in Brussels, new financing possibilities will open up for the development of projects in the port-logistics sector, along the lines of what we saw with the NEXT-GEN EU”.
Cooperation with non-EU Mediterranean countries
Another strategic theme is that of cooperation with non-EU Mediterranean countries. «On a global level, nearshoring and reshoring processes have long since begun to represent a valid response to the vulnerabilities of supply chains. The relocation of factories and suppliers to countries closer to Europe, and often friends, is benefiting economies close to the most important markets, such as Morocco, Egypt and Turkey. It therefore becomes essential to establish greater relationships with these countries and develop a port foreign policy that allows us to adapt to the new industrial supply chains that will arise”.
Guerrieri admits that it is precisely on this ground that the AdSP intends to play its game most important: «In June we will make an agreement with the port of Damietta. The objective is to begin to weave our network of relations with the Maghreb countries.”
It is a game to be played in tandem with another, that of logistical and intermodal development of the port system. From this point of view, if on the one hand Guerrieri underlines the strategic importance of the “Railway overpass”, a fundamental work that will allow for a direct connection, reserved for freight trains, between the port of Livorno and the Vespucci Interporto, from another hopes that the process of establishing the ZLS in Tuscany will be concluded as soon as possible, a “fundamental step to relaunch the territory and a topic on which an overall reasoning must be made to understand what incentives must be put in place to attract new production facilities”.
In its small way, the AdSP is already doing its part: if at a national level the Ferrobonus and Marebonus represent a programmatic response to the critical issues of an Italian logistics system strongly characterized by the prevalent use of road modes compared to more eco-sustainable modes of transport such as railways and sea routes, the AdSP has developed a sort of Maneuver Bonus to benefit of the railway operators of the port and interport system.
«This is a drop in the ocean – adds Guerrieri – but overall, these actions represent a concrete impulse to increase the integration and sustainability of the rail-sea-road logistics chain and thus reposition the entire logistics system on more competitive levels local”.
Overall, Guerrieri specifies: «we must be able to develop an industrial policy capable of creating new synergies at a macro-territorial level, between the coast and the Tuscan hinterland, but also with central Italy, where the logistical performances in their Overall they see a gap of twenty points compared to the national average.”
At the same time, new spaces and areas must be found for the development of intermodality: «The Vespucci Interport – he says – needs additional logistics areas to perfect its vocation as a logistics hub serving its port of reference».
These are the open fronts on which the AdSP has announced that it wants to get to work immediately, on the basis of a list of priorities that was widely shared by the institutional representatives and operators present at the table convened by Guerrieri.
For councilor Marrasfor example, it is essential to accelerate the creation of the FTZ, considered a real connecting element between ports, interports and airports, while for Councilor Bonciani it is necessary to open an observatory on the Red Sea crisis in Livorno, to monitor the progress of the situation.
