In the first trimester of this year the traffic in the port of Ravenna has grown of +15.5%

In the first three months of 2022 the port of call has enlivened a total of 6.72 million tonnes, an increase in +15.5% on the first quarter of last year, of which 5.88 million tons of cargoes at the landing (+20.3%) and 844 thousand tons boarding (-9.4%). The total number of miscellaneous goods was of 2,84 million tons (+20.3%), of which 1,77 million of tons of conventional goods (+24.8%), 611 thousand tons of containerized goods (+5.0%) made with a handling of container pairs to 56 thousand teu (+5.2%) and 456 thousand tons of rolling stock (+27,6%). In the liquid bulk sector, they were handled 1.11 million tons (+8.9%), including 531 thousand tons of petroleum products (-12.7%) and 583 thousand tons of other cargoes (+40,7%). Solid bulk totalled 2.77 million tons (+13.7%).

On the occasion of the presentation of the trend of the traffic of the first quarter of this year, the Port System Authority of the North Central Adriatic Sea took stock of the consequences of the conflict caused by the invasion of Ukraine by part of Russia on the activity of the port of Ravenna. The institution has announced that in 2021 the traffic of the Ravenna airport with the Black Sea countries reached 4.3 million tons (16% of total traffic), of which three million tonnes with Ukraine and 775 thousand tons with Russia.

The authority has specified that, from the point of view of the product categories concerned, in 2021 traffic to and from Black Sea countries involved two million tons of materials first for the ceramics of the district of Sassuolo, 1.3 million tonnes of agri-food products (cereals, vegetable oils, food and feed), about 250 thousand tonnes of fertilisers and about 140 thousand tons of mineral fuels.

In 2021, 446 arrived in the port of Ravenna from the Black Sea ships (16.5% of total touches in the port), of which 200 ships they concern trade with Ukraine and 162 ships with Russia.

In the first quarter of 2022 traffic with the countries of the Sea Nero amounted to 1,144,672 tons (17% of the figure total), of which 606,504 tons with Ukraine and 274,397 tons with Russia. In the same period the ships to and from the Black Sea were 107 (16.6% of total touches), of which 41 for trade with Ukraine and 42 for trade with Russia.

The AdSP found that the first quarter trades of this year they do not fully discount the effects of the ongoing war, with traffic indicators to and from the Black Sea, in terms of number of vessels and tonnes, which are in line with the average of 2021.

The port authority recalled that last month the European Union launched a fifth package of sanctions against Russia based on to which to ships of the Russian flag and to ships operated by Russian operators has been banned since April 16 access to EU ports and which, by way of derogation from this prohibition, competent authorities may authorise access to a port EU in the case of ships carrying agricultural products and food, fertilizers, medical-pharmaceutical products, aids humanitarian and energy products (natural gas, oil and derivatives), titanium, aluminium, nickel, palladium, iron ores and certain chemical and ferrous products. The derogation - he also recalled the AdSP - also concerns coal and other solid fossil fuels, but in this case only until next August 10th.

The Port System Authority explained that as far as concerns the potential effects of these sanctions on the port of Ravenna, 30 flying ships are docked as of April 2022 Russian flag, of which the last on April 4. Taking as a reference the whole year 2021, the ships flying the Russian flag arrived are were 89 out of the total of 2,702 (3.3%), for 384,791 tons (1.4% on the total traffic of the port). Of these 89 ships, 81 (for 336,586 tonnes, 1.2% of the total traffic of the port) refer to product categories exempted from the ban (fertilizers, fuels minerals, agricultural and animal products, foodstuffs/feedingstuffs/ oil) and only the remaining eight vessels (for 48,205 tonnes, the 0.2% of the total traffic of the port) concern affected categories from sanctions (raw minerals, manufactured goods, materials from construction, chemicals and metallurgical products).

The port authority also pointed out that, despite the escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine, in March 2022 on Ravenna's port has not only consolidated the traffic reached, but it is grown in virtually all sectors, both by category commodity that for conditioning methods, in a trend positive of 13 months of constant growth (from March 2021) which - announced the institution - it seems destined to slow down in April, if the first estimates on handling in the month, formulated at closing of orders on the Port Community System, will be confirmed. The consolidated growth rates in the first quarter of this year - the AdSP specified - they should, in fact, be eroded from the April result, down -17.6% compared to the same month of 2021 and -16.2% compared to that of 2019. Considered therefore, this marginal negative contribution that is affected in a significant lack of traffic with Black Sea ports ‐ announced the authority - the first quarter of 2022 should close with a total movement of almost 8.7 million tons, up about +6.0% compared to 2021 and down by -0.5% compared to the first four months of 2019. All the more important product categories, in fact - clarified the AdSP - should record a fairly marked negative balance compared to to the first quarter of both 2021 and 2019 and the products that would lose more are just those coming from the areas affected by war operations, i.e. materials from construction (‐12.5% on 2021 and ‐ 2.0% on 2019) and fertilizers (‐35.7% on 2021 and ‐27% on 2019). Positive instead, the estimate on the trend of the first quarter of 2022 of trailers and containers.