Forest products is one of Livorno port’s core businesses due to its proximity to the Lucca paper mills. It’s a traffic to focus on for the future thanks to the strengthening of trade with South American countries, which, more than others, affect the quantity of forest goods transiting through the port of Livorno.
This is what prompted the Agreement between Uruguay’s Administracion Nacional De Puertos (ANP) and the North Tyrrhenian Port Network Authority. It was signed this morning at the Port Authority headquarters in the presence of Uruguay’s Deputy Minister for Infrastructure, Juan José Olaizola, and Uruguay’s ambassador to Italy, Ricardo Javier Varela Fernandez, accompanied for the occasion by his Minister-Advisor, Imedla Smolcic Nijers, and by the Honorary Consul of Uruguay, Silvio Fancellu, who, in particular, is credited with having rekindled diplomatic channels with the Latin American country for the renewal of cooperation and the joint development of the ports in question.
The agreement is designed to give new life to an old agreement dating back to 2000 between the former Livorno Port Authority and the ANP, a body reporting directly to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in charge of administering Uruguay’s public ports (Montevideo, Nueva Palmira, Colonia, Juan Lacaze, Fray Bentos, Paysandú, Salto).The undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Tullio Ferrante, also witnessed the signing in video-conference from Rome
In particular, the intention of the Port Network Authority’s president, Luciano Guerrieri, and the ANP’s president, Juan Curbelo del Bosco, is to strengthen trade between the ports of Livorno and Montevideo.
In 2022, the port of Livorno handled 2.13 million tonnes of pulp, fluff, kraft paper and timber, up 19.2% on the previous year. The port, which alone handles 60% of national imports in the sector, aims to increasingly become a reference hub for Uruguay, Chile and Brazil, with which it already has very close ties due to the strategic role played by shipping companies such as G2 Ocean and Saga Welco.
Both carriers have commercial contracts with some of the most important pulp producers, from Brazil’s Suzano to with Finland’s UPM, a company that recently built a new plant in Uruguay in Durazno, near Montevideo, capable of producing around 2.1 million tonnes of pulp per year when fully operational.
On average, around 900,000 tonnes of forest products arrive in Livorno from South America every year. These are significant figures which are due to increase as soon as the new UPM plant in Montevideo starts production.
In short, everyone believes in the need for a greater exchange of information and know-how between the two countries. Above all, commercial operators, a large number of whom were present in at the initiative. They were extremely satisfied with the agreement. Lucia Filippi (manager of G2 Ocean) and Mauro Tosi (manager of Saga Welco) were among those taking part.
Various terminal operators (from the president of CILP, Marco Dalli, to the president of the Compagnia Portuale di Livorno, Enzo Raugei, to the CEO of Sintermar, Corrado Neri) and representatives of trade associations (such as Asamar, Spedimar, Confindustria, Confitarma, Assimprese).
Institutional representatives included the mayor of Livorno, Luca Salvetti, harbour master, Gaetano Angora, the managing director of the Chamber of Commerce, Pierluigi Giuntoli, and Nicolò Impellizieri from the Customs Agency.
“The agreement represents the beginning of a collaboration that we hope will continue over time,” said Deputy Minister Juan José Olaizola.
Likewise, Ambassador Fernandez spoke of the agreement as “a programmatic platform to relaunch a fruitful collaboration for both countries.”
For ANP’s president Curbelo del Bosco, the agreement signed today “has a strategic value because it can generate new development and commercial growth opportunities for the ports involved,” according to undersecretary, Tullio Ferrante, it represents an important opportunity for renewing an international cooperation between two very distant countries: “In the context of relations with the South American country, the North Tyrrhenian Port Network is an excellent point of reference due to its infrastructural capacity and strategic position,” he said, adding: “We hope that this agreement can mark the beginning of a renewed phase of development for Italy and Uruguay.”
Fully satisfied with the success of the initiative, Port Network Authority President, Luciano Guerrieri: “The agreement reinforces old ties, building new ones,” he said. “We will set to work to increase the economic and operational efficiency of our trade relations, in the name of common economic growth.”
Translation by Giles Foster