The public health emergency and ensuing major economic crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had repercussions worldwide on all industrialised countries, has impacted heavily across all commodity and passenger sectors of the Western Ligurian Sea Port Authority
Total cargo volumes fell to 4,028,374 tons, a - 31.6% decrease compared to April 2019. The sharp reduction was reported across all commodity segments, from containerised cargo (-12.9%), to conventional cargo (-44%) and to total bulk which declined by approximately -45%. Passenger traffic has practically come to a halt and in April suffered the heaviest setback with a contraction of -98.4% due to the suspension of all passenger liner services since March 2020.
It is important to note that as April 2020 is the first full month of the year to have been hit by the total lockdown of all non-essential activities, container volumes dropped by -15.8%, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, in line with the Port Authority's forecasts. Overall, the Ports of Genoa reported a -1.8% slowdown in container throughput in the first four months of 2020, handling a total of 855,955 TEU.
Towards the end of March, the widespread shutdown of manufacturing activities in Italy impacted more heavily upon exports which in March dropped by only -2.6%, whilst in April outgoing cargo from the Ports of Genoa experienced a -19.1% setback (based upon data analysis of total loaded full containers). Imports, which recorded a -12.9% reduction in full containers in comparison to April 2019, remained stable in terms of incoming full container volumes registered in March 2020, when the effects of the public health emergency in the Far East resulted in a slowdown in trade towards Europe.
More Information:
Traffic Ports of Genoa - April 2020
Traffic Ports of Genoa and Pra' - April 2020
Traffic Ports of Savona and Vado Ligure - April 2020
