Throughput in the first half of 2024: the Veneto Port System rises to the challenges of energy policies, global crises and stabilisation of traffic
Venice-Chioggia, 9 August 2024 – A 6.5% decrease of tonnage handled in the port of Venice for the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023 puts the spotlight on context-related issues that impact the port.
These figures are especially influenced by a drastic drop in the amount of coal handled (almost 500,000 tonnes less than the same period last year), ascribable to European and domestic policies on the economy’s energy transition. The slight drop in the steel sector, on the other hand, falls within a general framework of cyclical trends.
The heavy industry of the Veneto region and Northern Italy in general have continued to report difficult transactions – also due to the ‘war’ waged through payment systems – with Russia, which continues to be the most convenient supply market compared to its alternatives (i.e. South America): nonetheless, if statistically compared to the same semester in 2023, where steel bulk had registered record values at least for the previous five years, in 2024 figures appear to have settled on average values within the normal range.
As to other types of goods, the agri-food sector recorded substantial balance between a loss of 213 thousand tonnes in the movement of cereals and an increase in the traffic of foodstuffs and animal feed for over 203 thousand tonnes.
Oil products grew slightly (+2.1% over the six-month period), upturning negative trends recorded in 2023.
Ro-ro traffic grew by +6%, confirming the lively intra-Mediterranean trade, while, in the first half of 2024, containers were down (-5.9% TEU) due to the Suez crisis which heavily penalised the sector in the first months of the current year (-26.9% recorded in January 2024 alone compared to the figure for January 2023) but which seems to be being absorbed by the port-sea system as the second quarter (April/June 2024) appears to be recovering.
Cruise traffic is on the rise (+13.8% compared to the first half of 2023), particularly as regards the ‘home port’ mode, with more than 214,000 passengers (to which must be added the approximately 23,500 at Chioggia).
The port of Chioggia is recovering, with +33.7% in tonnes handled (almost 359 thousand in the first half of 2024), attributable in particular to the good results of dry bulk (+20.7%) and various goods in packages (+70.4%).