The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) liner shipping connectivity index for 2019 has been released, and has been expanded to include a port connectivity index for over 900 ports, which firmly establishes Genoa at the helm of the Italian port ranking.
The annual index, launched in 2006, is based upon a selection of components of the maritime transport sector, namely, number of liner services, carriers, ship calls and vessel capacity, and estimates the level of accessibility of every nation with the global network of liner services. The new index, specifically dedicated to the port industry, also examines data on individual port calls, dwelling time and container traffic throughput. The top three best connected ports are all in Asia: Fine modulo Shanghai, Singapore and Busan, whilst the Ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg retain their lead in Europe.
In the Mediterranean the top-three ranking transhipment ports are Piraeus, Valencia and Algeciras, whereas the top best connected gateway ports are Barcelona and Genoa, followed by La Spezia and Fos.
It is important to note that, within the Italian port gateway industry, only Genoa (52) has been allocated over 50 index points. The North Tyrrhenian ports continue to perform strongly compared to 2018; whilst in the Adriatic, the Port of Trieste has improved its overall position with 35 index points, whereas Venice has slipped to 19 index points.
The Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index can be viewed by clicking the following link: https://unctadstat.unctad.org/wds/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=170026
