Prometeia Study

Prometeia Study

Economic and Social Impact
Prometeia Study 2016-2020

The Ports of Genoa rank as the pre-eminent Italian port range in terms of throughput, commodity diversity and productivity and, play a strategic role as the modern logistics platform serving Italy’s manufacturing and consumer heartland and as a major direct contributor to social and economic benefits across the country.

The Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority governs the Ports of Genoa, Pra’, Savona and Vado, which serve as leading maritime hub for the import/export of goods, in support of the Italian supply chain and manufacturing industry. Port handling operations represent the core activity, with an economic impact which extends far beyond the local community and generates beneficial spill-over effects throughout the entire nation.

Prometeia Study 2016-2020
Research

In 2020, the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority commissioned Prometeia to conduct a study on the maritime port industry in Western Liguria, with a focus on the overall economic impact of the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado Ligure. The findings of this study illustrate the range of socio-economic impacts generated by the ports on the cities of Genoa, Savona and Vado, located in the Northwestern Italian Region of Liguria. According to the ISTAT ATECO classification of economic activities, the core activities of the Ports of Genoa have been defined as follows:

  • Shipbuilding;
  • Road freight transport;
  • Maritime passenger transport;
  • Maritime freight transport;
  • Warehousing and storage;
  • Back-up transport services.

ResearchOverall impact of the Ports of Genoa industry

The deployment of the interregional input-output model provided a clear assessment of the port sector’s impact on the local region. Three types of impacts were identified as follows:

  • Direct impact includes a range of activities undertaken within the port and that would not have existed without it. The data refers to economic output, added-value, and employment;
  • Indirect impact includes the economic repercussions of all activities related to the supply chain, comprising expenditure on goods and services across their own domestic sectors, but associated with the port supply chain;
  • Induced impact encompasses the economic consequences produced by the income-consumption interaction generated by the previous two impacts.

Overall, the Ports of Genoa produces an overall impact of €12.8 billion in economic output and€5.3 billion in added-value, providing employment for 71,000 people.

The port industry accounts for 14.1% of local regional GNP, 12.1% of added-value and 11.5% of total employment. In addition, the multiplier effect generates an indirect impact of a 51 € per 100 € and an induced impact equal to 53€.

The Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado activities generate an overall range of impacts (direct, indirect, and induced) that affect a vast number of activities, either directly linked from an industrial perspective along the port-supply chain or associated with the consumer demand deriving from distributed income.

Liguria is the region that gains the most from the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of the activities undertaken at the Ports of Genoa, accounting for approximately 60% of production and added-value, in addition to 58.7% of total employment. In terms of the port catchment area, a significant proportion of the impact sourced by the port extends into the region of Lombardy (14.2% of production and 14.6% of added-value, followed by Piedmont (4% and 3.6%), Emilia-Romagna (3.5% both production and added-value, and Veneto (2.3% for both); whilst further south, the greatest repercussions produced by the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado impact on the region of Lazio (5.7% and 5.9%).

Considering a total of 121,669 workers, associated either directly or indirectly with the port supply chain of the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado, the largest share is located in Liguria, amounting to approximately 71,000 people (58.7%), followed by Lombardy (13.28%), Lazio (5.8%), Piedmont (3.8%), Emilia-Romagna (3.8%) and Veneto (2.4%).

The final analysis of the study focuses on the impact that the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority's major infrastructure investment programme has been estimated to produce. Ongoing and future infrastructure project plans including clean energy transition projects, amount to €2.5 billion.

Taking into account a timeframe of 3-4 years, Prometeia indicates that the investments underway are forecast to yield significant direct and indirect impacts on the added value generated by the Ports of Genoa, amounting to approximately €1.6 billion, and exceeding €2.1 billion inclusive of induced effects. In terms of employment, it is estimated that approximately 37,000 new jobs will be created annually, phased across the duration of the implementation of the projects.

The breakdown of direct and indirect impacts is skewed above all towards construction, representing 64% of added-value and 73% of employment contribution to the industry. Other sectors which benefit from these repercussions encompass a range of business services (financial services, real estate operations, legal and management assistance, technical and engineering support), collectively making up 16% of the total.