If the first quarter of this year had been negative for the port of Taranto in terms of volumes of goods handled on the docks, which had fallen by -15.1% over the same period in 2023, the following quarter was much worse with only 2.73 million tonnes handled, down -30.7% on the previous year. April-June period last year. The only sector product that in the second quarter of 2024 was is growing is that of containers, which, however, is completely marginal compared to the overall activity of the port and which totaled just 67 thousand tons (+21.3%), increase that is not such if the traffic is evaluated in twenty-foot containers handled having been equal to almost 6 thousand TEUs, with a decrease of -50.4% on the second quarter of 2014, 2023 when the share of empty containers was substantial. Relevant is decrease in other traffic volumes starting from other miscellaneous goods fell to 414 thousand tons (-40.4%). Bulk solid and liquid, with 1.38 million tonnes and 871 thousand tons, recorded decreases of -33.7% and -21.7%. In the passenger segment, cruise passengers increased by +27.9% rising to 41 thousand units.

In the first six months of 2024, the Apulian port of call handled a total of 5.39 million tons of goods, with a reduction of -23.8% on the first half of last year year, of which 2.82 million tonnes of cargo at landing (-30.9%) and 2.57 million tons at loading (-14.1%).