Freight transport by sea continues to take off amidst new trends and great opportunities

The volume of business linked to the trade and international transport of goods by sea continues to rise steadily. Italy, despite the enormous opportunities linked to its strategic position and the channels already open, especially with Asia, continues to show a certain myopia, still reaping great results, but below its real potential.

On the world scene, the incidence of the war of domination between China and the United States of America in terms of import-export is quite heavy, with Asia-America container exports decreased by about 10% on an annual basis.

Precisely that of containers is the handling activity that sees China the most protagonist; Sinic containers are in fact equal to two thirds of world trade in the same sector, with numbers that are around 250 million.

Maritime trade represents a fundamental asset for the Italian economy which is dealing with the US blocs

However, the "trade-war" does not affect what are the values ​​of maritime trade, with a growth from year to year that varies on a positive 3,8 percentage points, destined to take off further in the three-year period 2021-2023.

In the general framework, our country certainly records very important performances in this sector. However, there are many problems that Italy must necessarily deal with if it broadens its gaze by focusing on the numbers of world trade.

The international growth of our maritime transport is to all intents and purposes undeniable: the value of Italy's trade by sea travels on figures that are between 250 and 300 billion annually, with the "sea sector" which absorbs almost 40 % of the Italian trade.

On an internal level, the central-southern regions play a key role in these numbers, in fact, in our maritime trade the ports of the South have weight percentages that are around 50% of the national total. in fact as our main supplier country: the "incoming" relations with Asians are worth just under 25 billion euros and represent almost 20% of all Italian imports by sea. The situation is different for America: the US is in fact the main source of income for our exports with just under 30 billion euros, almost 25% of the total of our exports.

Dizzying numbers, yes. But why "sit down" when you could push a lot harder?

With port investments aimed at increasing the capacity and traffic attraction of our ports by 10%, an economic impact, in terms of growth, would be generated in excess of another 3 billion euros.

According to the data emerging from various studies, the use of the intermodal (different transport systems regulated by a single contract), still appears very low compared to the rest of Europe.

A fundamental role will certainly be played by the ZES (Special Economic Zones): institutions that must forcefully get into action as soon as possible to ensure that the productive fabric yeast and that new companies are attracted from abroad.

SEZ, heavy investments in infrastructures and adaptation to sudden change at all levels, especially in the PA, are fundamental factors to respond positively to the great interest that foreign markets show for Italy, especially China, a real potential driving force for the Italian economy linked to maritime trade and beyond.