ROME: The port of Ravenna’s main business is bulk cargo. Of its eighteen terminals, dry or liquid bulk cargo handling represents the predominant activity for seventeen of these. But the port also houses a container and car terminal, which is run by the Contship group, and has been looking to expand its ro-ro business, a very significant sector for the Adriatic. 2017 had begun with an overall decrease in trade (-2.5% in the first half, compared to the same period of 2016). By the end of the third quarter this downward trend had recovered to one of just 0.3%, with 19,276,710 tonnes moved over the nine months, in line with what its port president, Mr. Rossi, had predicted towards the middle of the year.
“The causes for the slowdown experienced in the first six months have been addressed, such as the blockage in the outer port which had restricted navigation, and the general economic situation in the markets seems to be heading towards a gradual recovery.”
An ongoing debate centres on a new event for the Adriatic shipping sector in 2017, namely the inclusion of this region as Europe’s gateway terminal in China’s New Silk Road, the grandiose infrastructure development project promoted by that country’s government. Currently, Ravenna is looking like it may be up to the task of joining the process, but, to do so, needs to build networks with other ports in the region. It’s perhaps no coincidence that, recently, Ravenna’s new Port System Authority, led by Daniele Rossi, decided to re-join NAPA, the North Adriatic Ports Association. The port, in fact, had left the association in November 2012, during the presidency of Galliano Di Marco, head of the Port Authority at the time. Their return to the association has the growth of its container handling business as its goal. “The association of North Adriatic Ports is now playing by a very different script,” said Rossi, “both domestically, with the reform of the port sector and the creation of system authorities, and internationally, where new market phenomena are at play, of which the so-called “Silk Road” is one. It’s a scenario that requires greater determination in defending the role of our ports within Europe, in order to reaffirm and raise the profile of the North Adriatic within the EU’s economic and transport system. This requires, on the part of NAPA, a rethinking of strategies, to which Ravenna wants to contribute.”
For its relaunch, the port aims at leveraging also the fact that Ravenna is one of the EU’s core ports, and the hub for two trans-European corridors, the Mediterranean one, between Algeciras and the Ukraine (which includes the Turin-Lyon segment), and the Adriatic-Baltic one. At the beginning of November the coordinator of the latter corridor, Kurt Bodewig, visited the port of Ravenna: “The Adriatic-Baltic corridor,” pointed out Rossi, “crosses 6 EU member states (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia and Italy), along some 1,800 kilometers, connecting the Adriatic ports of Trieste, Venice, Ravenna and Koper with ports in the Baltic Sea. In total, the corridor encompasses 13 metropolitan areas, with corresponding airports, 25 ports, and 24 intermodal platforms.”
As of September 2017, overall freight traffic at Ravenna increased by 2.42%. This result reduced the losses from the beginning of the year to being down by just 0.3%, compared to the same period in 2016. Liquid bulk, which had marked -1.0% at the end of June, returned to the black: +2.7% (3,380,377 tonnes moved), compared to 2016. Dry bulk, the port’s main trade, also increased from -7.0% to +1.4% (to 8,094,209 tonnes). The break bulk segment instead has followed an inverse route; in the first half of the year it was in positive territory (+1.7%), then lost ground in the third quarter, and closed 3Q in the red, compared to 2016, at -3.1%. The decline was mainly attributable to a drop in containers (167,842 TEU in the first nine months compared with 176,129 TEU in the same period in 2016, or -4.7%), and in ro-ro traffic (a 2.9% drop in tonnes transported).
