LIVORNO. Nereo Marcucci, delegate for infrastructures of Confindustria Toscana Centro and Costa, was also president of Assologistica and Confetra, the Italian General Confederation of Transport and Logistics, and a historic president of the Port Authority. Who to ask, if not him, to take stock of the current situation of the Livorno seaport and the port sector in general?
How do you see the current situation in the port of Livorno?
«Last February, The sun 24 hours the headline, referring to the 2023 financial statements, was “Italian ports in decline, goods are falling in 14 out of 16 authorities”. The few data available for the first months of the year, referring to the number of ships that called at our ports, confirm a negative trend, which also applies to Livorno. I don’t think they were larger or more loaded ships. Additionally, shipping companies have added 25% to their hold by having to circumnavigate Africa due to the Red Sea crisis. The President of the Association of European Port Authorities – considered by all to be one of the leading experts at an international level, declared on 22 May that we are in a difficult period, which will continue for many years. Radical changes are underway in value and production chains. The most striking example: Mexico has surpassed China in exports to the United States. Covid and wars have accentuated processes that were already underway. Countries and Regions particularly involved in import/export will have to evaluate important shifts in production and supplies, activate industrial policies that relaunch manufacturing production, complete physical and intangible infrastructural structures, diversify the role of ports. Livorno is obviously no exception: the Port System Authority has undertaken to collect traffic data more frequently and to support operators in the search for new opportunities and to continue with the creation of some priority infrastructures”.
What are, in your opinion, the prospects of the port of Livorno, specifically in relation to the Darsena Europa?
«Darsena Europa would confirm us in the range of ports for the handling of containers that have a significant international standing. In 1980 Livorno with its 406,812 TEUs was number one in the Mediterranean. However, it will take a few years to build the enormous terminal and, as stated by the President of the AdSP Guerrieri, further financial resources through loans and state financing of the railway connections which Deputy Minister Rixi recently and publicly quantified at over 700 million euros. In this regard, I note that CIPESS, on May 29th, approved, as part of the update of the Contract between the Ministry and RFI, 7.6 billion in new investments, including 1,234 million in tied resources and 400 in untied resources for the Third Pass of Genoa. While I appreciate two interventions for Tuscany: the 56 million for Pistoia-Lucca and the 27 for Empoli-Siena, I do not notice any new, perhaps partial, provisions for the Livorno railway connections. I thought I understood, again from the deputy minister, that the issue of the state of progress which had led to the cancellation of the first 311 million already posted had been overcome. Having said all this, I would firmly aim for the creation of a handful of works that the Authority has shared, and on which it is working, which would represent a realistic step towards the future Darsena Europa”.
To what extent can the Labronico port be affected by the international situation?
«Recently IRPET, the regional institute for economic planning of Tuscany, questioned the structural or economic dimension of some creaks that can be felt in the traditional economic structure of our Region. Similar concerns can be noted for some nearby regions which represent the main catchment area of our port. Among the various reasons for the merger between the Confindustria of the coast and the Florentine one there is also that of addressing whether and how manufacturing and logistics can lend a hand to reduce those concerns. The future of the port, or rather “of the ports”, with the exception of the so-called “axillary” ones, i.e. Genoa and Trieste which enjoy important positional and relational benefits, depends on how much consolidation takes place in their areas of influence manufacturing and therefore intermediate goods in import and final goods in export”.
How has port management changed in the last ten years? What do you foresee for the future?
«Among the many changes, the most radical and impactful is represented by the integrations, first horizontally between shipping companies and then vertically of the entire supply chain, especially in the container segment. The consequence is that commercial traffic at sea and on land has few dominus who are able to decide everything and much more than the institutions. It is true that we are witnessing phenomena of concentration in almost all production and service sectors. Time will tell whether all this, in general and in ports, is socially sustainable.”
