TRIESTE – Despite the recent accident in the Suez Canal and the ongoing pandemic, container traffic in the Port of Trieste during the first four months of 2021 increased by nearly + 4%, with 250,284 TEUs. Overall, the port handled 205,417 full TEUs (+5.29%) and 44,867 empty ones (-2.15%).
During the first four months, the uptick in traffic was strongly driven by the Ro-Ro sector, which consolidated positive trends (+31.93%) with 96,904 units handled.
Solid bulk cargo bucked the trend (- 9.06%), with 160,401 tonnes handled, but liquid bulk cargo performed even worse (-17.65%) with 10,392,063 tonnes.
Regarding rail cargo, the numbers are starting to bounce back, with a return to pre-Covid levels: 3,045 trains (+8.52%) ran during the first four months, but the numbers from April alone show a much more dramatic increase (+ 40.40%). The growth was driven primarily by the excellent performance of Molo VII (Trieste Marine Terminal) and Molo V (Samer Shipping) and by resuming Siderurgica Triestina’s rail traffic transporting raw materials to steelworks in Cremona.
The Port of Trieste’s network can count on over 200 weekly train departures to much of Europe. It has continued to expand during the pandemic, with several lines to Austria being strengthened and a new service to Nuremberg in Germany.
Starting in April, also total volume grew for the first time since the pandemic (+20.44%). Therefore, the numbers from April denote encouraging signs of recovery in the liquid bulk sector (+24.64%), generating immediate cascading benefits on total volume handled in the Port of Trieste, which for the first time since the pandemic shows double-digit growth compared to the same month the previous year.
Turning to the Port of Monfalcone, a total of 963,288 tonnes of cargo (-11.30%) were handled at Portorosega during the first four months of the year. The decrease mostly reflects the performance of the general cargo (-22.65%) and solid bulk (-5.40%) sectors. Worth remarking on is the performance of the sub-category of metallurgical products (+1.93%), whose 630,926 tonnes account for 93.35% of solid bulk handled and 65.50% of total volume in Monfalcone.
There were reassuring signs of recovery for the container sector (+30.59%) and 286 Teus. Negative trends were recorded for the commercial vehicles sector (-3.52%) with 27,248 units handled; this sector was affected by difficulties in procuring raw materials and electronic components, on the contrary impacting the entire automobile industry and satellite activities.