The proposal is surprising, in the Italy of bell towers. Also because, if successful, it would create a sort of cooperation between ports that are usually used to fierce competition. But in times of crisis, unity is strength and therefore from the conference “Under the sign of the port 2” which took place this morning in the “GS Bucchioni” auditorium of the Port System Authority, an appeal was launched on several occasions to the ports of the Ligurian Sea and the northern Tyrrhenian Sea to create a joint strategy that allows emergencies to be addressed with multiple tools that are accumulating on the horizon, that of war, that of the closure of Suez, that of infrastructure and that of the numerous construction sites that will soon be opened to build them. A way to strengthen what the market already carries out autonomously, choosing the closest port to the one which is unusable at that moment, and to make the most of the characteristics of each port in terms of spaces, intermodality and anything else that can be used overcome any economic difficulties that may arise.
Here’s the explanation claim of the event “…and pluribus unum“, referring not so much to the components of the Spezia System or to the port system with Marina di Carra, but rather to the opening of a relationship with the other ports of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian coast.
“Always – he declared Mario Sommariva, president of the port system authority of the eastern Ligurian Sea – the ports do not collaborate, they fight each other and lose the real comparison, which is the one with the ports of Northern Europe. Today in an alert situation, La Spezia, thanks to the successful experience of real coordination and integration with Carrara, launches an offer of concrete collaboration firstly in Genoa and Savona, but also in Livorno, to present itself on the market as a coordinated system that has its winning key in logistics, railways and the offer of services, including those that supplement the difficulties of others. We are at a turning point, and this is a common perception. Therefore we need different solutions. The answer we have imagined is that in this port system of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ligurian Sea, which collects 70 percent of Italian traffic and in which international crises are compounded by the imminent start of many works, we can begin to address this situation complex together. You can’t do it alone. In La Spezia, the railway and passenger pier construction sites are putting competitiveness at risk and to maintain it we have created a shuttle system at our expense. But what if something happens? We need a plan B. This is why today we propose an “engagement”, even if the main girlfriend, who is Genoa, doesn’t know it yet. We propose to think about these issues.”
A proposal resulting from the consensus and indications of the Mercitalia company, represented by the managing director Sabrina De Filippisbut also of the approval clearly expressed during today’s event, albeit from different points of view and with different facets, by all the major operators in the maritime, port and logistics sectors.
The conference actually gave voice to what, as underlined by Salvatore Avenarepresenting the port community of La Spezia, was a major flaw in Italian infrastructure planning and which today has become an emergency: coordinating, outside of parochialism and provincialism, the major infrastructural choices with the actual demand for the apparatus productive and industrial sector of the country.
“And the answer – as the general secretary of the ADSP reiterated, Federica Montaresi – passes through a system response which today is no longer a slogan, but rather a compelling necessity to rationally spend resources and to place major works and, first and foremost, ports at the service of the demand that arises from the country’s economic system, also breaking out of patterns mental and cultural now obsolete. In the case of Liguria, coordinating and not contrasting the efforts of La Spezia and Carrara with those of the nearby ports which in the coming years will have to face the operational impact of the construction sites for the construction of large works”. Montaresi then gave the audience some news that should have been conveyed by Gianpiero Strisciuglio, CEO of RFI, who was unable to connect remotely: “Yesterday we received communication from RFI of the release of the variant for the track project for the Spezia Marittima station, which will allow further development of the new Ravano terminal”.
“It’s time – he confirmed Paolo Pessinapresident of Assagenti, return to the theme of cooperation between ports – of overcoming conflicts and launching a large territorial marketing operation especially among industry, Italian and otherwise, the real image of a port system of the Tyrrhenian arc capable of also respond with coordinated and efficient logistics to the demand for services”.
A project that inevitably must pass through a bath of realism and concreteness, invoked by the president of Assarmatori, Stefano Messina, which underlined the importance of port communities also in the relationship with large international maritime transport companies; so from Matthieu GasselinCEO of Contship Italia and Lsct, who confirmed the unblocking of the investment plan for the La Spezia port.
Almost thirty years after the boom of Contship led by Angelo Ravano, La Spezia, as forcefully underlined by the president of the Freight Forwarders Alessandro Laghezza, copes with crises and does so not by chance in a complex moment in which great flexibility and reliability are required. “We have always overcome difficulties with complementarity, not with competition. The numbers for the first three months of 2024 increasing over 2023 are also the effect of the Red Sea crisis, given our position with respect to Gibraltar. The strength of our port system is demonstrated by these numbers and by the logistics area of Santo Stefano Magra, which with the establishment of the simplified logistics zone will be able to open up new solutions. The reliability of our system is evident.”
Qualities which, however, risk being questioned by bureaucracy, a long-standing problem that the group’s CEO Dario Perioli, Michele Girominifocused on: “Until last year, the master plan for the port of Marina di Carrara dated back to 1981 and was designed in the 1960s”.
Out of the core Zeno D’Agostino, president of Espo, the European sea ports organization, who illustrated with foresight and clarity the prospects for Italian and Mediterranean ports: “There is a certain optimism that in my opinion is in contrast with the visions for the next twenty years which someone referred. The world is closing down and in 20 years we will have to deal with blocks in which production will be increasingly autonomous. We must forget the globalization to which we have been accustomed until today. Also because the Suez crisis of ’67 lasted eight years. The resilience of the transport world leads to new routes, but we must keep industrial localization in mind. It is no longer static in the Far East and the prospects are for exponential growth in countries such as Egypt and Morocco. For this reason I think we need to review the planning we have done up to now. Optimism must deal with a different geopolitical situation and a different industrial production. We should think about remodulating investments and reviewing the port function.”
Tags: Ports appeal cooperation Savona Livorno starts Spezia Sommariva present integrated system market
