Elena Nencini
The first phase of the Port Hub Project, which began in September 2021, will end at the end of June, with the closure of almost all the construction areas of the port of Ravenna, in which infrastructure strengthening interventions were planned. The project, carried out by the temporary grouping of companies with the Consorzio Stabile Grandi Lavori as agent – of which the Rcm Costruzioni of the Rainone Group is the majority and reference partner and the Belgian Dredging International as the principal, is in fact about to be completed.
A series of works that are making our hub attractive for many new operators also thanks to the new seabed which will be at -14.50 m at the end of 2026. The dredging work of the Candiano at -14.50 was assigned to the temporary grouping of companies Sidra (Società italiana dragaggi spa) together with Consorzio Integra Società Cooperativa Ambiente, Bioscience Research Center and Consortium for the Inter-university Center of Marine Biology and Applied Ecology «G . Kisses.”
The strength of the Hub Project is that of being an integrated project and that it contemplates, alongside the infrastructural enhancement works of the port such as those directly affecting the docks and seabed, also the creation of new areas for logistics (over 200 hectares) close to the port docks and connected to roads and railways. Daniele Rossi, president of the Port Authority of Ravenna, takes stock of the works and explains the reasons for the negative traffic data in the first quarter of 2024.
A summary of the first phase of the works?
«We hope to maintain the schedule that we have agreed with the contractor and therefore to see the majority of the docks completed by June 30th. The dredging at – 12.50 m will however be completed by the end of the year. Strategic areas of the port, such as the outport and the cruise terminal basin, are now at -11.50 m. A very important operation for the cruise season: with the new seabed we have guaranteed the entry of latest generation cruise ships, including the largest. We expect an important tourist season even if for 2024 we should limit the number of ships because the works on the maritime station will begin and the terminal will not be able to manage the numbers of the last two years. This year we will probably go from 330 thousand last year to 200/250 thousand cruise passengers, thus managing not to occupy the construction site area. The really important thing is that we have forecasts for significantly more important numbers.
When will work on the cruise terminal start?
«The contract has been awarded, all the necessary legal checks are underway and the work on the cruise terminal should start by the summer. However, this lot is in the hands of the terminal operator concessionaire Ravenna Civitas Cruise Port (Rccp). The Port Authority participates both economically and as technical support, we are involved in the authorization and monitoring phases, but the operational management lies with Rccp and its contractors”.
Has the second step of the hub work already started at the same time as the first phase?
«Yes, the second phase has already started some time ago with the awarding of the excavations and the construction of the system for the management of the materials deriving from the further deepening of the seabed. Work will also start soon on the railway station on the left Candiano while the construction site for the one on the right Candiano will only start next year.”
Negative trend in freight traffic for the first quarter, do you see any solutions soon?
«Unfortunately, traffic is affected by a difficult international situation: the numbers tend to be negative, we lost 5-6% in the first quarter compared to last year. This is entirely attributable to the international geopolitical situation which sees some areas of great interest for the traffic of the port of Ravenna, such as the Black Sea and the Middle East in a situation of war and total blockage of the markets. The port of Ravenna has historically had very strong commercial relations with both Russia and Ukraine: with the Black Sea before the start of the conflict we had contracts for 5 million tonnes of goods per year which are now reduced to two. To this loss, already having a strong impact on the 27-28 million tons that the port of Ravenna handles annually, this year is added the situation in the Middle East with the war in Israel. In addition to all this, there is a moment of slowdown in the Italian manufacturing industry and the construction sector (in particular, as far as we are concerned, in the ceramics sector) which saw a particular boom in the superbonus period and today is falling heavily , also due to the considerable increase in raw materials. It is necessary for all the production chains to start working again as they did two or three years ago, so that the port of Ravenna can express the great potential that the new infrastructures give it today: we cannot forget that ports do not generate GDP but record the trend of the gdp. If the economy is bad, the ports are bad. This unfavorable situation that began with Covid, continued with the war in Ukraine, then exasperated by the consumption crisis in Eastern Europe and throughout the world, and also worsened by the increase in inflation, is dragging on. Furthermore, as if that were not enough, today one of the markets of greatest interest for our port, the Middle East, is paralyzed by a very serious war situation. The reality is that the port of Ravenna today is a new port, the infrastructure is there and the port is ready to grasp the rebound in the economic trend. New seabeds, new docks, new areas for logistics, a new energy community and an increasingly better level of services make the port of Ravenna a port capable of growing, developing and attracting new flows of goods. And all this is attracting the attention of numerous operators interested in settling in the new logistics areas, being able to benefit from all the opportunities that the “new” port of Ravenna is able to offer”.
