Terminal facilities overall performed strongly at the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado Ligure in April 2024, with an increase in cargo throughput of +11.3% on the corresponding period of the previous year to a monthly total of 5,759,747 tons.
Specifically, solid bulk rose by +102.2%, containerised cargo by +16% and conventional cargo by +12.1% on April 2023. Above all, it is important to note that the figures released by the container and multipurpose terminals indicate that the extent of the impact of the Red Sea crisis on the Mediterranean ports and, explicitly, on the Ligurian ports is as yet not fully clear, as the negative statistics registered in March have now been followed by a set of highly positive results. April's resurgence now boosts total freight volumes for the first four months of 2024 to 21,355,517 tons, a slight advance of +1% on last year.
In addition, box traffic recorded an increase of +12.7% on April 2023, at a total of 259,859 TEUs, bolstered above all by a +6.2% rise in full container gateway traffic and a 72.7% surge in transhipment. In juxtaposition to the month of March, exports rose by +6,7% and imports by +5,4%; whilst the growth in transhipment at the Port of Vado Ligure, from 2,129 to 10,603 TEUs, is due to a series of spot calls which were introduced to replace the scheduled liner services that have been cancelled as a result of the disruptions caused by the attacks in the Red Sea. In the first four-month period of 2024, container volumes rose to 919,178 TEUs, a +2.3% advance on the previous year, across the Ports of the Western Ligurian Sea.
The liquid food bulk sector (-36.9%) and industrial activities (-38.8%) both sustained a fall in volumes, the latter due to the debate underway regarding the future prospects of the Acciaierie d'Italia steelworks.
Monthly passenger throughput is also in decline, although the first four months of the year have reported a gain of +1.6% - a total of 747,549 -, including a +5.5% advance in cruise passenger traffic on 2023 to 502,279.
More information: Traffic Ports of Genoa – April 2024 ({docidfileslight}4162{/docidfileslight})
