The Ports of Genoa were amongst the guests invited to speak by Logistic-Cluster Schwaben, the Logistics Association at the helm of the vibrant area in Baviera between Munich and Stuttgart, at the Maritime Port Day hosted on 6 July in Augusta.
The networking event was attended by over 75 managers from the supply chain and manufacturing industry in the region, including Southern Germany's leading industrial hubs such as Kempten, Ulm, Memmingen, Donauworth and Augusta.
The Western Liguria Sea Port Authority, with the support of Promos Italia and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Germany, presented to the Swabia-based import/export companies the full range of front-line and back-up services provided by the Northern Italian port range. A focus was dedicated to the logistic alternatives offered by the "southern trade routes" towards the Mediterranean and Adriatic ports. It was noted with interest that the rail services already in place from the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado to the Swiss Basel-catchment area can be extended to Baden Wurttemberg and Swabia, offering competitive transit times and added flexibility in terms of the excellent geographical mix of ports of destination connected directly to the Ligurian ports across a wide selection of scheduled liner services. The emerging markets in the Mediterranean and North Africa are high on the agenda of the German shippers who attended the event, an issue which merges with the concept of "nearshoring" to Turkey and North Africa recently introduced by manufacturing companies based in Southern Germany.
The Logistic Cluster of Swabia welcomed the opportunity to take part in a forthcoming trade mission to the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado to lay the groundwork for the establishment of closer ties with the Ligurian terminal operating companies.