JOC.com
Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent
Contship Italia, Italy’s biggest container terminal operator, boosted traffic by 5.7 percent in 2014 as surging volume at its part-owned Morocco transhipment hub more than offset flat traffic at its once high-flying domestic terminals.
The company, which is 33 percent owned by Germany’s Eurokai group, handled 6.6 million 20-foot equivalent units last year, up from 6.2 million TEUs in 2013.
Traffic in Italy, which soared nearly 20 percent in 2013, was almost unchanged at 5.167 million TEUs against 5.174 million TEUs in 2013 as growth at Contship’s gateway terminals cancelled out slowdowns at its transhipment hubs.
In contrast, the Tanger Med transhipment hub in Tangier, boosted traffic by a third to a record 1.43 million TEUs from just over 1 million TEUs in the previous year and 585,000 TEUs in 2012.
Contship’s flagship Medcenter Container Terminal in southern Italy ended two years of double-digit growth with traffic dipping to 2.97 million TEUs from 3.087 million TEUs.
The company blamed the “modest” contraction, which followed a 13.4 percent rise in 2013, to an upgrading of the port’s IT system during the summer and a temporary shutdown of operations when the United Nations used the port to tranship chemical weapons surrendered by Syria.
Traffic at the La Spezia gateway terminal grew to a record 1.109 million TEUs from 1.031 million TEUs, partly due to the acquisition in May of Speter, a local container handler.
The Cagliari International Container Terminal on the island of Sardinia stalled at 656,000 TEUs, while the Salerno terminal saw traffic jump to 234,000 TEUs from 200,000 TEUs, the second successive double-digit annual increase, and Ravenna’s volume contracted by 8,000 TEUs to 198,000 TEUs.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
