Multimodal marine terminal operator T O Delta has launched a logistics centre promoting the Italian port of Trieste not only as a faster and more cost-efficient way to reach Central and Eastern Europe, but as a platform that helps manufacturers and exporters bounce back from the economic recession that has plagued the industry since last year.
"This is an initiative that aims to start a completely new approach to the business. We would like to utilise the Adriatic gateway, which is the fastest way to reach Eastern and Central Europe, and the free port facilities to create a sales platform for Asian exporters and manufacturers," Alberto Innocenti, T O Delta's chief representative for Asia, told Cargonews Asia.
The Adriatic Trade Centre (ATC) is a trading and logistics platform targeting manufacturers and exporters in Asia Pacific, providing them with a simplified wholesale network that includes showrooms, warehouses, handling and distribution activities as well as sales and show rooms and office space.
"We want to promote the Adriatic Trade Centre as an innovative platform to let exporters re-enter the European market, where they lost a lot of business due to the financial crisis. Hong Kong exporters saw trade to the EU drop 18 percent and to Eastern Europe 30 percent.''
"We think that this is caused by a number of factors - the drop in demand and the credit crunch,'' said Innocenti. "The drop in demand is a challenge for importers and buyers because they lack the confidence to make bulk purchases and meet the minimum order quantities that Asian manufacturers set.''
Innocent believes the ATC gives exporters an opportunity to regain some business. "Exporters can come to the ATC, display their goods and sell in smaller quantities. At the same time we will help people that have been interested in entering the European market but were scared off because of the bureaucracy and red tape and cost involved of setting up a branch there.
"We are allowing a wide range of Asian businesses to open up their sales representative offi-ces in Europe under very convenient conditions with access to a simplified tax regime and to a market of more than 100 million people, thanks to the geographical advantage of Trieste," Innocenti said.
T O Delta saw an opportunity in the geographical advantage of Trieste back in 2004 and took the concession to run the container terminal, and recently the bulk port, providing the company with a network of facilities.
"It's only recently that T O Delta got the licence to run the port and we invested heavily in railroad connections from Trieste to the major cities of Europe. Now we have a web of rail connections to Munich, Vienna, and Budapest, and we can go all the way to Russia,'' said Innocenti.
Trieste is well connected with roads and has in place feeder links to the main East Europe and Mediterranean ports. Trieste also has a ferry and cruise terminal connecting the city.''
Innocenti pointed to the significant cost savings due to the shorter sea and land distances from Trieste.
"Geographically, we are much closer to cargo destinations than North European ports. Lines are going through a hard time and trying to save costs as much as they can, and by cutting the sea distance from Suez Canal to Europe by two-thirds we believe we are offering them an opportunity to save costs."
He noted that Trieste is, in some cases, was half the distance to key European locations compared with North European ports. Trieste is 350 km to Milan compared with 1,389 km from North Europe; Salzburg 395 km compared with 863km; Budapest 616 km compared with 1,393 km and Prague 814 km compared with 677 km.
"Over the past 30 years North European ports have gained enormous market share because they are well organised, but recently we have changed the business model,'' Innocenti said. "We are pushing to modernise facilities and multimodal connections so that more and more shipping lines will come to Trieste and more operators will choose the Adriatic gateway. The market is big with Hamburg moving something like nine million TEUs and Rotterdam more than 10 million TEUs last year. Trieste is far from those numbers, moving just under 400,000 TEUs, but has the space to triple that volume."
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