Faced with the prospect of a redefinition of world routes “Italy must ‘cheer’ on the Suez Canal, so that it will be doubled entirely, so as to avoid blocks like the current one: it needs to be developed and become more and more efficient. crucial, given that our ‘country system’ is already not very competitive in logistical terms “. Mario Mattioli, President of Confitarma, underlines this to time.news, recalling how the incident that occurred in the Egyptian Canal to the Ever Given container “reminded us of how fundamental maritime transport is for the world economy, given that 90% of goods traded globally “.
In recent years, he recalls, “the Canal has undergone an important expansion which now in some sections allows simultaneous navigation in a north-south and south-north direction, with a double lane: it is a pity that the accident that occurred at Ever Given was happened in a single lane section “. But if “in Northern Europe, given climate change, an Arctic route is also being evaluated which could even save time, for Italy – explains Mattioli – the Suez Canal is crucial, in the direction of trade with the Far East. and oil transport it would be unthinkable to think of alternatives “. “If to skip Suez the container ships were to enter from Gibraltar, land in Italy and then leave the Mediterranean to go to Northern Europe, we could lose even the little we have”, he observes.
Already today “although Italy is a platform in the Mediterranean close to Suez, which should make it the gateway for goods bound for Europe, it happens instead that even orders in the Far East made by our Italian companies are delivered from the north. , after being unloaded in Rotterdam, Hamburg or Antwerp. And this despite the fact that there are at least 6 more days of navigation. A scenario that highlights “a logistical gap that is worth between 70 and 90 billion a year for Italian purchases that pass through the ports of Northern Europe alone”.
In this context, also in the light of the Suez accident, it is clear to Mattioli that “we must greatly improve port and country system logistics, trying to attract what we are losing today: we must become a freight logistics platform for Europe”.
“The problem – he admits – is that we have not planned real economies of scale in terms of logistics: the goods that pass through all our many ports are worth just ten months of traffic in Rotterdam, which has a single port authority, with a monstrous efficiency. A large port has a lower unit cost, it is also more efficient in terms of punctuality, and this is essential for companies that have increasingly reduced warehouses to reduce costs “.
“On the other hand, after so many years we have just managed to go down from 25 to 15 Port system authorities. So over the years we have lost a lot of ground, and the bureaucracy does not help us: any operation – complains the president of Confitarma – needs a number infinite number of authorizations and times that are not consistent with the needs of the system “.