During the month of April, the ports of the port system of the Western Ligurian Sea (Genoa and Savona) witnessed a sudden acceleration in the transhipment of containers in parallel with a gradual recovery of both unitized and non-unitized traffic. “Significant” result according to the local port authority which still goes hand in hand with the rise in conventional traffic.
A result to be read “in relation to the repercussions deriving from the continuing Red Sea crisis. The fact that the excellent performance in April follows a negative result recorded in March, however, provides a reading that is not yet entirely clear as to what effects geopolitical tensions are actually producing on the trend of sea movements both at a global level which in the Mediterranean context” however held back the institution in the note issued for the occasion.
The month of April closed at 259,859 TEUs (+12.7% compared to April 2023), supported by the movement of full gateway containers (+6.2%) and, above all, by transhipment activities (+72.7% ). In the case of full gateway containers, growth was recorded in both exports (+6.7%) and imports (+5.4%), substantially in contrast with the month of March. As regards transshipment, however, the growth in movements is mainly attributable to the increase in transhipment volumes in the port of Vado Ligure, which went from 2,129 to 10,603 TEUs and connected to some spot calls which were necessary to replace the canceled services due to the impossibility of crossing the Red Sea. In detail for the two ports, the month of April was positive for both ports: Genoa grew by 9.3%, while Savona recorded an increase in volumes of 42.1% in relation to the elements described so far. In the progressive calculation of 2024, overall movements stood at 919,178 TEUs, +2.3% compared to 2024” (+2.1% in tonnage).
In the meantime, the commissioner for the new breakwater in the port of Genoa, Marco Bucci, who has just finished his recovery from a recent operation, has revealed that one of the first activities will be the setting up of the tender for the second phase of the work, for how much the modification to the project to merge it with the first one is still sub judice to the Ministry of the Environment for the verification of whether it is subject to an environmental impact assessment.
Despite, in the meantime, more than the 15 days expected between the launching of one caisson and the next, and despite the fact that the construction site at the head of the Vado Gatweay terminal should have been operational between March and April (the first caisson was produced by the Dario dock moored at the Vado dam), the ADSP showed itself to be optimistic for the continuation of the works in compliance with the timescales, announcing a further chapter for the preparation of the ‘caisson factory’, a step which will also allow the Tronds Barge 33 to be moored there: “The latter, currently moored in Genova Pra’, will significantly increase the productivity of the shipyard and will be used for the construction of larger reinforced concrete caissons”. Furthermore, the simultaneous continuation of work on the new Vado Ligure dam was made known.
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