Genoa port plans to boost European market share

The port of Genoa, Italy's biggest in terms of overall goods volumes, aims to boost its share of the Italian and other European markets by attracting business from north European rivals, its head said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.


The port plans to draw more clients based on its strong ties to North Africa's Mediterranean ports and by offering a shortcut of five to six days to Far Eastern destinations compared with major north European ports, said Luigi Merlo, president of the Genoa Port Authority.


"We want to win back our traditional markets: Lombardy and Veneto regions, which tend to use ports of northern Europe, because Italian ports have lost their competitive advantage," Merlo told a news conference.


Genoa, a major container port in Italy, plans an investment of 600 million euros ($856.5 million) to boost its container capacity to 4 million of 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) a year in 2015 from 1.8 million at present.


Part of the investment is to be financed by the state and part by the port itself from cash flow and bank loans, Merlo said.


Italy's ports are often bypassed by ships coming through the Suez canal with Asian goods, because their services are slower versus northern European rivals and because they are not well equipped for big cargoes.


"But our goal is also to win at least small market shares in Germany, Switzerland, which can be easily connected with our port," Merlo said.


The increased container capacity would still be a far cry from the 9 million containers a year handled by Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port. Instead of trying to compete with Rotterdam head-on, Genoa wants to forge closer ties with the major rival, Merlo said.


"Rather than competition, it will be more of a cooperation.part of the European strategy of strengthening an alliance, a coordination between northern Europe and the Mediterranean area," he said.


CORRIDOR 24


Under the European Union's Corridor 24 project, Genoa will be linked with Rotterdam by a major railway axis across the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The project will have a catchment area of 70 million inhabitants with shipments of 700 million tonnes a year, or 50 percent of north-south rail freight in Europe.


As part of the project, Italy's government has already set aside 700 million euros to start a new tunnel on the route from Genoa to Milan to ease traffic bottlenecks, and work is expected to start this year, Merlo said.


On its home turf, the port aims to strengthen ties with the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy's financial centre which lacks access to the sea, to create a common economic area modelled on Beijing's link with China's major port of Tianjin.


Genoa port also plans to sell its 60 percent stake in the city airport to focus on its core activity as well as attract investment to the growing airport, Merlo said.


The base value of the stake is set at 30 million euros, and a buyer will be expected to invest another 44 million euros under an international privatisation tender to be announced in May, he said.


The airport's other shareholders - Genoa's chamber of commerce with 25 percent and Rome's airport operator Aeroporti di Roma -- have pre-emptive rights on the stake, he said.


In 2010 container handling volumes at the port returned to pre-crisis levels.


Volumes of shipped commodities have started picking up in the first quarter of 2011, with palm and other vegetable oils used for biofuels surging 20-30 percent, Merlo said.


Market operators expect growth in volumes of biofuels over the next four or five years, and the port will need to boost specialised terminal capacity, Merlo said.


Merlo said he did not expect volumes of oil imports to the port to increase in the next few years because of falling refining demand in northern Italy.
(Source:http://en.portnews.ru)