A controversial concession for the sixth module of Genoa's Voltri container facilities has been awarded to the consortium of PSA-Sinport, the Italian state railways and COSCO.
The contract has been fiercely contested by Contship Italia which had successfully disputed in court an original deal for the new facility to be awarded to PSA-Sinport subsidiary Voltri Terminal Europe.
Voltri Terminal Europe (VTE) runs all the other five modules at Voltri.
According to Augusto Cosulich of Fratelli Cosulich, COSCO's Italian agent, the winning bid has promised to handle 500,000 TEUs at the sixth module within the next five years.
Other commitments undertaken include an $81 million investment and the employment of 140 workers along with stevedores from the port's Compagnia Unica.
Reports say that Voltri has been the centre of controversy for a long time running, with VTE's concession being criticized for poor service and a lack of investment from PSA-Sinport.
Reports said that the concession was confirmed only when PSA pledged significant additional funding to Voltri, and won over P&O Nedlloyd to Voltri, and along with it the calls of the Grand Alliance.
In what industry players called "a significant move in its battle to retain its status at Voltri", VTE had in 2005 "snatched" the Grand Alliance which included P&O Nedlloyd, Hapag-Lloyd AG, NYK Line and OOCL from Contship Italia.
A World Cargo News report last year had in fact talked about P&O Nedlloyd's acquisition of a 30% stake in VTE from PSA-Sinport.
The Grand Alliance had originally been calling at Contship Italia's La Spezia Container Terminal which had been praised by the Genoa Port Authority (APG) as a measure for well-performing throughput levels.
VTE needed to boost throughput in order to prevent the APG from allowing Contship Italia from taking over new facilities at Voltri.
Industry players say that the Grand Alliance move from the La Spezia Container Terminal was more than enough to improve VTE's performance.
Reports say that the deal now awaits approval by a port committee which is slated to meet in the next two weeks.
Lloyd's List has quoted Augusto Cosulich hoping that the concessional award would win the approval of port interests and politicians, and escape the delay possible from a legal appeal from Contship Italia.
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