Data on the traffic of goods handled in 2024 by ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado Ligure present "some aspects that they must be analyzed carefully because they hide problems significant factors, such as the lack of adequate services for the goods". This was noted by the general director of the association of the Genoese freight forwarders Spediporto, Giampaolo Botta, referring, in particular, to the containerized traffic handled last year by the two Ligurian ports of call, which together recorded a growth of +2.9% over 2023 generated by the increase in +50.8% of transhipment traffic, which stood at 417 thousand TEUs, which more than offset the -2.5% drop in traffic import-export, down to 2.40 million TEUs. "The two million and 820 thousand containers budgeted by the end of the year - Botta observed - are the result of a strong increase in the transhipment which, in particular in the port of Savona, had a real boom, with an increase of 1,421% compared to 2022 and by 128% compared to 2023. It must be said, however, that transhipments they do not leave much in economic terms to the territory. Rather, it is It is necessary to understand how the drop in full containers in exports (-3.5% compared to 2023, -6% compared to 2022) while imports recorded a timid increase (+1.9%) which, however, does not compensate for the negative figure that emerges compared to 2022 with a -4.8%".

According to Botta, "the inadequacy of services continues to penalize the port of Genoa. We need - he said - certainties on the time of exit of the goods, because the delays related to to staff shortages, inadequate technological equipment, lack of of space, increase costs and make it uncompetitive compared to the ports of northern Europe. And they should not be underestimated either the difficulties that the world of road transport is experiencing, which are likely to increase in the coming months and which will be necessary to address in full harmony with the category and the companies".

Referring to data from the recent survey by SRM and Contship, the general manager of Spediporto noted that if companies Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna use the port of Genoa in import transactions for 29% and export for 47%, however - Botta specified - it is a matter of percentages significantly lower than the 2019-2024 average attested, for imports at 66% and for exports at 70%. All while, for example, for example, the nearby port of La Spezia gains, in preferences of companies, eight percentage points on the five-year average in import and 11 in export.

"The lack of services and the costs to be incurred for the checks of the goods - denounced the general manager of the freight forwarders' association - are creating a bad reputation for the port of Genoa. Companies report to us constantly the difficulties they experience and which concern in some trafficking such as food or health products. Already ordinary operations are made more difficult from the indispensable process of renewal of the Infrastructure; wasting time and money on the various checks, not having certainty about the timing of the exit of the goods from the ports makes the unsustainable situation".

Spediporto noted that the fact that exports represent A problem for the Ligurian and Genoese economy, in particular, emerges also from the recent study by Confindustria which certified a decrease, in the second half of 2024, in both turnover from foreign customers (-1.9%, a decrease not recorded since the second half of the year 2020, in the midst of the Covid pandemic) and orders from foreign customers (-0,5%).