Ferry traffic in Italy’s leading port

Genoa - The Motorways of the Sea are the only port sector that has been able to resist the impact of the crisis of 2008, and even record growth. In 2007, 509 million tonnes moved through Italian ports, a figure that has never been equalled in the following years. In 2015, according to the Assoporti data, the flow was reduced to 443 million tonnes (-13% over the following eight years). The last conjuncture analysis from Confetra shows a slight sign of recovery in Italian maritime freight traffic in both 2015 and 2016, but the gap to reach 2007 levels is still far from being filled. However, the situation for Motorways of the Sea is completely different. In 2007, intermodal freight transportation was 81 million tonnes, in 2015 it grew to 90 million (+11% over the following eight years).

The amount of wheeled maritime traffic as a proportion of total activity in Italian ports has therefore increased; from 15.95% in 2007 to 20.40% in 2015. In particular, wheeled traffic surpassed containerised traffic, which at the beginning of the 2000s was the queen of cargo on which the growth index and investment prospects of a port were almost solely based. While in 2007, goods in containers accounted for 19.39% of the total freight moved in Italian ports, in 2015 it decreased to 17.63%. This growth in freight volume resulted in the creation of a great number of new lines served by ferries that now link Italian ports to more and more destinations including foreign ones. Currently RAM (Rete Autostradale Mediterranee, an in-house agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation) has identified 41 different maritime lines of this type (35 originating in the Tyrrhenian Sea and six in the Adriatic), of which 20 are international routes, for a volume of 82 million tonnes of goods transported. To further support this modality, Italy is about to introduce the so-called “Marebonus”, a triennial incentive for shipping companies, who must pass the benefit on to the road hauliers who use their ships as an alternative to all-road transport. According to an RAM estimate, the bonus will allow for externality savings over €260 million by taking freight vehicles of over 800,00 trucks off the road.

RAM says that the Sea-bonus will have a budget of €93 million to be distributed in the three-year period 2017-2019, which is much less than the €130 million that had been discussed until last year. The Italian experience, first with the EcoBonus (which in the period from 2007 to 2010 increased the use of the MoS by 22.3%) and now with the Sea-bonus (and the corresponding railway Rail-bonus) pushed the European Union to study the possibility of a eurobonus. Antonio Cancian, the president and C.E.O. of RAM explained, “The Mediterranean is a European sea, and so Europe, if it wants to enjoy the waters, should incentivise maritime and river transportation. The national incentives of the Sea-bonus and the Rail-bonus should be an intermediate step towards the granting of European incentives: by midway through 2017, we at RAM will have presented to the European Commission, together with Portugal, Spain and France, our proposal for a system of incentives coordinated at the level of the European Community, for the implementation of the Motorways of the Sea.”