«I think that the port of Gioia Tauro is an essential port that will grow further, so much so that our traffic forecasts point to 7 million TEUs by 2029. All this, however, can be achieved with investments in infrastructure that must be financed». This was said by the extraordinary commissioner of the Port System Authority of the Southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, Paolo Piacenza, who participated in the “Genoa Shipping Week”, a biennial event that brings together port, maritime and logistics operators from all over the world.
«I am referring – he explained – to the expansion of the yards, the speed of container handling, the digitalisation and security of the IT systems. And then also the ability to attract and export goods by train. We have a railway fleet of six 750 meter tracks which, in the first nine months of the year, handled 616 pairs of trains destined to grow. Even these data, referring to goods arriving from other national realities, which thanks to the giant ships of Gioia Tauro can have an international market, must serve to open an overall system reflection, so that a transshipment port has absolute relevance on the national economy of ports”.
Piacenza has turned its attention to the possibility of developing the rear port: «The objective I am setting myself at the moment is to verify how I can manage to develop the rear port areas, bringing added value to our port and the territory. I think that having a port of such physical capacity and not exploiting the adjacent port area, which is not interrupted as in other Italian ports by motorways and hills, is an opportunity that cannot be missed to ensure greater development in the area”.
Piacenza focused attention on the infrastructural investments that are being made in Gioia Tauro which serve to guarantee – he said – «the typicality of our port, which is that of welcoming the largest ships in the world, which currently circulate on the international market. This element has guaranteed, even in these years of great global crisis, starting from pandemics up to the closure of the Suez Canal, without forgetting the European ETS directive, potentially impacting the development of maritime traffic, constant growth with incredible numbers. As I have already had the opportunity to say in the various meetings in which I participated this week, – added Piacenza – we closed 2024 with 3.9 million teus moved. In the first nine months of this year we have already recorded growth of 11.6% compared to the first nine months of 2024 so, with good probability, we will close 2025 by breaking, for the first time, the barrier of 4 million teus. These are incredible numbers that deserve to be analyzed in the national context, because the port of Gioia Tauro handles 40% of Italian containers. A fact that must make us reflect on the true importance of transshipment, which cannot be considered as a mere transhipment activity but which represents an essential gateway for international goods to enter the national market. We must also focus – he continued – on the 3.9 million TEUs handled in 2024, noting that, of these, 3.3 million concern full containers. An important fact because it makes us understand how the national and Mediterranean economy has moved and what the fundamental role our port plays within it. All this – he added – means production of added value, for example in terms of VAT, in the ports where the goods are disembarked and therefore taxes and revenues that remain in the territory, which however should be reflected on considering that few of these resources remain in the transhipment port which, however, as seen, is an essential element of this chain. I would also add that of the 3.9 million TEUs handled, around 800 thousand are containers that arrive or go to national ports. From this point of view, saying that the port of Gioia Tauro is a transshipment port is true, but perhaps it is an understatement because we must consider that without the port of Gioia Tauro around 800 – 900 thousand TEUs of goods would not arrive in other Italian ports and therefore in the national market”.