ROME: Italian terminal operator Contship Italia has released details of the throughput at its terminals in 2014 here the other day. Total throughput at its five Italian terminals in 2014 was 5.17m teu, almost exactly the same as last year.
At La Spezia Container Terminal, throughput rose by 7% and at Salerno Container Terminal it raised by 21%.
On the other hand, at its biggest terminal, the Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT) at Gioia Tauro in Southern Italy, throughput fell by 4%, at Terminal Container Ravenna it fell by 4% and at Cagliari International Container Terminal it stayed the same.
In a statement, the company attributed the “modest contraction” at Gioia Tauro to: “Systems changes in the summer period and the temporary shutdown of commercial operations in order to handle a U.N. managed operation.”
In March, 60 containers filled with dangerous chemicals from Syria that can be used to make chemical weapons, were shipped to Gioia Tauro to be transferred to an American ship and destroyed.
At La Spezia, the company’s statement said: “The complete acquisition of the remaining Speter shareholding in May 2014 added volume to an already existing growth trend.”
Ravenna’s “slightly lacklustre performance” was attributed by the company to a constraint in water depth and quay access which the Port Authority has committed to solving in 2015. It was noted that there was strong growth in the final months of 2014.
Salerno, a small container terminal near Naples, enjoyed its second year of double digit growth.
Throughput at the container terminal of Eurogate Tanger in the Moroccan port of Tanger Med increased by 34% this year, its best ever result.
Eurogate Tanger is one of Tanger Med’s two terminals, along with APM Terminals Tangier, and is a joint venture between Eurogate/Contship Italia , CMA CGM and MSC.
Throughput at the port as a whole increased by 40% in 2013, making it the 55th biggest port in the world in that year.
The port has only been operating for six years and is primarily a transhipment port, located in the Straits of Gibraltar.
