Italian ports closed 2022 with a total throughput of over 490 million tonnes of goods and a 1.9% increase on the previous year according to the data in the latest ‘Port Infographics’ report.
The ‘Port Infographics’ report is an online research publication which is part of SRM’s Permanent Observatory on the Economics of Maritime Transport and Logistics. The publication is the result of a partnership between SRM and Assoporti, the Italian port association.
In the press release, Assoporti stresses that the multi-purpose vocation of the Italian port system has been confirmed: “Our ports are capable of catering for different transport demand needs, handling 169 million tonnes of liquid bulk, 120.9 million tonnes of ro-ro traffic, 119.5 million tonnes of containers, 61.1 million tonnes of dry bulk traffic, and 19.7 million tonnes of ‘other types of goods’. In addition, they handled over 61.4 million passengers, including 9 million cruise passengers.”
Not only that. The report highlights how Italian ports have shown greater resilience than other competitor areas. If we look at ports handling over one million TEUs, container traffic was up 1.3% in 2022, in contrast to the drop in box traffic recorded by competitor areas from the Northern range to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
The maritime connectivity of Italian ports has also improved: 4 of its ports of call are in the top 15 Mediterranean ones. Greater presence in the international network of scheduled container connections increases the country’s competitiveness.
Italy’s international trade relies strongly on the sea. 39% of imports/exports are by ship, worth 377 billion euros. There was a significant upturn in maritime traffic in 2022, + 38%, 10 percentage points more than the performance of trade as a whole.
The top five categories of goods entering the country by sea account for 72% of maritime imports (oil & gas; metals; machinery; chemicals and textiles & clothing).
The top 5 categories of goods leaving the country by sea account for 76% of maritime exports (machinery; refined products; chemicals, vehicles, food and beverages)
China remains Italy’s top supplier, providing one fifth of the goods entering our country by sea.
The United States continues to be a major market for Italian exports by sea: a quarter of our goods leaving the country by ship are for North America.
Translation by Giles Foster
