MONFALCONE – New investments are coming for the port of Monfalcone. Yesterday, a meeting was held between local unions and representatives of the F2i Group, owner of CPM (Compagnia portuale di Monfalcone) and MarterNeri.
Details of the meeting, but above all of the companies’ intentions, were revealed today by the local edition of Il Piccolo, according to which 15 million euros will be spent on new equipment (cranes and mechanical means).
The issue is part of two critical threads that in recent months are drawing attention to the port of call led by the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea: employment and organization of work.
As far as the new jobs are concerned, the unions have explained that they will be expanded as soon as the work organization is made official. In particular, MarterNeri will deal with quay operations (ex art. 16 of Law 84/94) but will also be partly involved in terminal operations (ex art. 18).
Both companies (MarterNeri and CPM) belong to the F2i Sgr fund. The latest acquisition was completed in the last weeks when FHP, F2i’s port holding company, controlled by the F2i Third Fund (42%) and the F2i-ANIA Fund (58%), bought CPM from the TO Delta Group. The FHP Group has thus strengthened its presence in the Northern Adriatic with the acquisition of a second terminal in Monfalcone, after that of MarterNeri and the sites in Mestre and Chioggia. Considering Carrara and Livorno, the total rises to eight, with a turnover of 110 million euros and over 500 employees. CPM and MarterNeri, physically contiguous terminals, will operate commercially as a single entity, with the aim – the Group had stated – of achieving operational efficiencies to the benefit of operators and the reference territory.
It is a synergy of which we have given the news these days, linked to the current problems concerning steel and steel products loads.
On the other hand, the question of the coexistence between conventional goods and cruises, which are currently sharing the quays, remains open. After the positive news that made Monfalcone a port of call for MSC due to Venice’s problems, solutions were proposed to avoid conflict between the two trades. At the end of the season for the “white ships”, there will be some time to think about a solution: dredging or a dedicated pier.