Throughput data for the Ports of Venice and Chioggia for the first quarter of 2024
On a quarterly basis, from January to March 2024, 5,551,006 tonnes were handled in the Venetian port’s quaysides, down 9.8% compared to the same quarter in 2023, a figure that was nevertheless doped by the exceptional performance recorded in March last year. The data for the first quarter of 2024 in Venice show a 6.4% rise in liquid bulk (i.e. 1,703,186 tonnes compared to the first quarter of 2023), and a 25.4% decrease in dry bulk, with 1,522,508 tonnes handled. The decrease was heavily affected by the sudden drop in hard coal and lignite (-61.45%) linked to the national energy strategy.
General cargo figures also dropped in the first quarter of 2024 (-7.4% compared to the same period in 2023), with 2,325,312 tonnes handled; showing an opposite trend, Ro-Ro increased 7.9% (594,782 tonnes). On the other hand, the expected downturn in container throughput due to the Suez Canal crisis that is affecting most Italian and Eastern Mediterranean ports, including Venice, continues. In the first quarter of 2024, container traffic in Venice decreased 12.9% (with 112,189 TEUs handled) compared to the first three months of the previous year, while the dropped recorded on an annual basis was 8.6%.
Chioggia’s first quarter confirms sound growth in all segments, having recorded a 40.7% increase (166,522 tons) compared to the same period in 2023. This trend is almost entirely ascribable to dry bulk, which recorded a growth of 24.5% with 116,684 tonnes handled.
Cruise ship passenger traffic figures were positive, thanks to the new sustainable cruising model that was launched following Decree 103 of 2021; in the first quarter of this year alone, 11,622 passengers and 13 cruise ships called at Porto Marghera. Since the beginning of the year 2,950 passengers (+106% compared to the same period in 2023) from 5 cruise ships called at the port of Chioggia.
“As predicted by several analysts,” was the President of AdSPMAS Fulvio Lino Di Blasio‘s comment, ‘for Italian ports, and therefore also for those in the Veneto, 2024 will continue to be a complex year for throughput, due to continuing international tensions that cause an unfavourable outlook for the world economy and, consequently, for the local economy and the Adriatic in particular. The entire industry is being put to the test: however, as stated by Federlogistica, it is an industry that has boldly withstood four international crises in just a few years and has continued to maintain a central role on a global level. This standpoint enables us to realise that commerce has basically held its ground in Venice and Chioggia, having achieved a 2% growth in the period between April 2023-March 2024, as a result of the performance of the Ro-Ro and steel sectors. With this in mind, the Sea Port Authority, supported by the entire port community, continues in its endeavour to maintain the competitiveness of our ports through activities and projects aimed at creating value for our territory, which range from the activities financed by the National Reconstruction and Resilience Plan, to the calls for tenders for the excavation of the canals, and the construction of the new cruise terminal and the future container terminal at Montesyndial, passing through the investments linked to the new concessions and, in the near future and with an active role of the Port, with the Simplified Logistics Zone.”.