The ports of the Western Liguria Sea Port Authority register strong growth in August 2024 in cargo throughput, driven by containers and solid bulk.
The month of August 2024 witnesses an increase in overall throughput across the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado Ligure to 4,992,670 tons, up +2.4% compared to the corresponding period of 2023. Box terminal facilities performed strongly, reporting a rise of +33.7% in containerised cargo on August of the previous year, in addition to the solid bulk sector which recorded a leap of +49% on 2023. Conventional cargo is stable, with a slight drop of -0.4% on the same month of last year, whilst mineral oils fell by -33.2% due to ongoing maintenance works at the local oil refineries. Downward trend across the liquid bulk industry, with a -44.7% decrease on the corresponding period of 2023 as a result of a fall of -63.7% in chemical products, albeit a +4.5% growth in liquid food bulk.
Container volumes rose to 255,445 TEUs in August 2024, up +18.4% on the corresponding period of the previous year, bolstered by a 194.5% surge in transhipment. The substantial growth in traffic across this commodity sector reflects the rescheduling of calls made by global carriers at the Ports of Genoa in response to ongoing disruptions caused by the attacks in the Red Sea. In the first eight-month period of 2024, box traffic in the Ports of Genoa and Savona-Vado totals 1,879,118 TEUs, a +1.3% increase on last year's comparable period.
The busy passenger port also performed strongly, posting 710,084 ferry passengers, up +6.5% on August 2023, and totalling over 2 million across the first eight-month period of 2024, an advance of +1.5% on the previous year. Cruise passengers dropped by -6.9%, compared to August 2023, due to a reduction in ship calls for on-site works in progress, and total 1,471,888 in the first eight months of the year, down - 4.4% on the same period in 2023.
