Throughput this year is the highest since 2008 and the facility is no longer purely a transhipment port; finally, it is now also an intermodal gateway
The port authority has entrusted MCT, now solely controlled by MSC Group, through TIL, with management and operation of the new intermodal rail terminal under a 30-year concession, and the first trains operated by Medway, another MSC Group company, have started rolling in to the 32.5-ha terminal, which straddles the customs zone of the terminal and the interporto. The total length of the tracks is 3,825m.
The realisation of the rail terminal was originally entrusted to Sogemar, the intermodal arm of Contship Italia, in 2014, at the time MSC’s 50:50 partner at MCT,
but their disagreements over future strategy eventually led to Contship Italia’s departure from the port last year and, with it, the abandonment of the railhead. Rather than organise a new tender, the port made a contractual agreement with MSC group.
Meanwhile, the Rome-appointed special commissioner for the port, Andrea Agostinelli, has reported that MCT handled 3.15M TEU in calendar 2020 through to mid-December. This exceeds MSC’s short term commitments made to the Italian government in return for being awarded the solus concession and “stop the rot.”
MSC/TIL took over in June 2019 and that had an immediate galvanising effect. In calendar 2019, the port handled 2.52M TEU, up 8.4% on 2018 (2.3M TEU). In 2016, MCT handled 2.79M TEU and in 2017, when Maersk stopped calling, 2.45M TEU.The last time the port topped 3M TEU was 2013, with 3.087M TEU, and it had been in decline ever since 2008, when the record of 3.468M TEU was set.
At the start of 2020, MCT took delivery of three giant STS cranes from Dalian Huarui Heavy Industries.
It also started to renew the fleet of straddle carriers, with Kalmar.
The port is also benefitting from a new pilot system from Navicom Dynamics. ULCCs can now call at any time of the day or night.
Agostinelli adds that the port is looking for a floating dock on the second-hand market, in the range of around 380m lengthwise by 70m wide. It is preparing to invite classification societies to participate in the project to firm up the design and the characteristics suitable for Gioia Tauro. The financing mode has not been decided, but the overcall cost could be around €40M. A further €20M is earmarked for resectioning the west docks at the G-H mark.
