Q: Mr Pozzobon can you tell me why these three Italian ports have attended this exhibition together?
A: First of all let me introduce the three ports of Genoa, Savona and La Spezia, which are among the most important Italian ports. They all belong to a region in northwest Italy called Ligurian. These 3 internationally important ports are located along a stretch of coastline only 150 km in length, and all belong to the regional administration of Ligurian. Together they handle over 91 million tons per year, which is over 3 million TEUs, and represent one of the most important port systems in the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason we decided to join forces and promote ourselves together on the international market, especially here in China. The development of the Chinese economy is creating an enormous traffic flow between Europe and China It is therefore very important for us to promote ourselves as the gateway to the European market
Q: There are many other European ports representing themselves at this exhibition. What are the advantages of using your port system over the other ports in Europe?
A: The first thing is the location of the ports. We have a very long history, which dates back 2000 years to the Roman Empire. The importance of the Ligurian ports grew through the centuries especially because of relations with China. During the period between the 14th and 17th centuries they were the most important ports for trade between Europe and China. After the discovery of America a big change occurred, as the most important routes then were from Europe to America, and the northern European ports were then favored. Now that the Chinese economy is growing, the most important routes once again are from Europe to China, and our ports offer the closest proximity to the European market. We are only 300 km from Austria, South Germany and Switzerland so these markets are easily reachable
Q: When shippers are deciding where to send their containers they are interested in efficiency. Not only the facilities available at the port, but also inland transportation and the transit time. What can you tell me about these issues at your ports?
A: Port performance has really improved at Italian ports since 1994 when we had a policy reform by the government, which changed the management system of the ports from public to land lease. Today all the Italian ports are public but private companies manage port operations. The port authority is public but it leases land to private operators, so port authorities only take charge of administration and handling of the port infrastructure. Private companies settled in the Italian ports now manage port operations so their efficiency has really improved in recent years. Many major players in the business have already settled in our ports and this is the most important guarantee of port performance. We are developing a new container terminal at the Savona port that will open in 2012 and will be managed by Maersk one of the largest shipping companies in the world. The second important consideration is inland transportation and we are investing heavily to improve this. At present, over 32% of container traffic is moved from La Spezia to Europe via rail. This means lower costs and assured transit times. In Genoa and Savona we are organizing a dedicated railway service, and there is the possibility of Savona purchasing its own locomotives to provide shuttle trains from the port to different destinations. This will start in February from the port of Savona to Switzerland to serve this particularly important market.
Q: Can you give a prediction as to the growth of container shipments from China to the Ligurian ports over the next few years?
A: I think we will be able to increase the shipments we handle by 1 million TEUs over the next few years, and we have development plans to double our capacity by the year 2015. This means an increase from 3 million TEU per year, which we handle now, to 6 million TEUs over the next 8 years. I would like to tell you that our ports can already accommodate the largest ships in the world fleet. We naturally have very deep waters; the new project we are developing for Maersk will have a water depth of 20 m, and will be capable of handling ships with loads of 12 thousand TEUs. This will be a unique feature amongst all the other Mediterranean ports.
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