If for most Italian ports 2022 is State the year of complete recovery of traffic volumes of goods lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic which had a Strong impact on activity in 2020 also continued In the following year, a comeback in traffic that in some cases has led to exceed pre-health crisis levels Despite the effects on port operations of the war Russia-Ukraine in place since last February 24, for the port of Taranto 2022 was instead a year of further decline of the activity, with only one (April) of the twelve months filed with an increase in loads handled.

In particular, last year the port of call of Puglia has handled a total of 14.6 million tons of goods, with a decrease of -16.9% on 2021 but with decreases also on the total data for 2020 (-7.6%) and on that of the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (-19,6%). Both goods on landing and are piled to 8,3 million tons (respectively - 15.3%, -0.2% and -19.4%) and those at boarding amounted to 6,3 million tons (-18.9%, 15.9% and -19.8%).

In 2022 the only item to have recorded an increase in activity is that of containers and only because first of the health emergency this sector had been at a standstill since 2014 as a result of the abandonment of the port by the ships of the Taiwanese group Evergreen that managed the container terminal of the port Pugliese through the subsidiary Taranto Container Terminal (TCT). With the assignment of the management of the container terminal to San Cataldo Container Terminal (SCCT) of the Turkish group Yildirim The activity has resumed in mid-2020 but so far has not taken off so much that in the whole of 2022 traffic containerized was only 284 thousand tons, with increases of +93.4% on 2021 and +396.4% on 2020, for a container handling which amounted to 29,825 TEU (+151.9% and +441.1%).

On the other hand, the other miscellaneous goods that have totaled 2,8 million tons (- 16.7%, - 11.3% and -39.4%) as well as solid bulk with 7.9 million tons (-11.5%, -4.2% and -13.4%) and liquid bulk with over 3,5 million tons (- 16.6%, -17.0% and -18.3%).

The final balance for the fourth quarter of 2022 alone was also negative, period in which the port of Taranto has enlivened a total of less than 3.5 million tonnes of goods, with reductions in -10.2%, -15.7% and -11.5% on the corresponding quarters of 2021, 2020 and 2019, of which 2.0 million tonnes of goods on landing (+9.8%, -3.9% and -11.4%) and 1,5 million tons of goods boarding (-27.4%, -27.3% and -11.6%). Total goods containerized has been of 13 thousand tons (- 86.8% and -49.1%) and that of the other goods various of 598 thousand tons (-31.1%, -32.5% and -21.6%). In the dry bulk segment the Traffic has been of 1,8 million tons (- 8.8%, - 14.4% and -12.1%) and in liquid bulk of less than 1.1 million of tons (+14.5%, -3.8% and -4.4%).