Confetra: “Slow but steady recovery”

Genoa - The freight sector continued its slow but steady recovery; th is was the message that emerged from a 2016 State of the Economy assessment prepared by the Analyti cs Centre of Confetra which conducted interviews with a panel of companies that are representative of the various sectors. For the third consecutive year freight transport pe rformance rose for all modalities, although only air cargo significantly outperformed pre-economi c crisis levels reached in 2007. In detail, the growth in air freight - which registered a +7.4 percentage point increase - accelerated in the second half of the year, showing that pea k season usually takes place at the end of year, when the supply of goods for the Christmas period is up. This was confirmed by the overall number of air shipments that marked a 4.5 perce nt increase, compared to +2.3 percent in the first half of the year. The road haulage sector, despite ending the year with positive growth (+4.4 percent for international full load, +4 percent for groupage, and +2.6 percent for domestic freight), showed an inverse trend, slowing down compared to the first half of the year. Sea transport, as well, did not continu e growing at the same pace as in the first six months of 2016 (TEU +1.4 percent; dry bulk +0.4 percent, RO- RO +3.1 percent), except in the transhipment segment, which thanks to the good resul ts of Gioia Tauro showed an overall +9 percent growth. As for the liquid bulk sector, i ts slight decrease, compared to 2015 (-0.4 percent), seemed more a function of the turnover in st ocks of petroleum products, rather than a true reversal of the trend. Rail transport post ed significant results, showing an acceleration over the first half of the year, moving from +3.8 to +4.1 percent.