Port of La Spezia is working with the Port System Authority of the Eastern Ligurian Sea, Contship Italia Group, Tarros Group, the Association of Shippers, and the Customs Association and Maritime Agents and Consignees to ease the expected congestion of cargos at the the North Tyrrhenian port system in the coming weeks. 

In a statement, it said the North Tyrrhenian port system will be faced with the challenge of handling thousands of TEUs coming into Northern Italy that cannot be delivered to companies who are now in "non-essential” business mode for at least the next two weeks, until the government is able to relax its decree issued 22 March. 

"To avoid heavy port storage costs and congestion the port-community has come together as one group ... [and] Port of La Spezia [will] offer, as from today (26-March) a number of solutions including the availability of 100,000 TEU of local storage capacity within a radius of 15km from the port of La Spezia as well as the intermodal-hubs in Melzo (Milan), Dinazzano (Reggio Emilia) and Padua," it said.

It takes four weeks for a ship from Asia to reach the North Tyrrhenian coast and ports will now have to temporarily store a significant quantity of containers. 

Port of La Spezia said short-haul solutions will be available at Interporto di Santo Stefano Magra/La Spezia including customs clearance, temporary storage, VAT storage and potentially, a handling service for palletized loads, thanks to local operators who have combined to share storage facilities and covered warehousing.

Customs officers continue to work diligently, supporting the flow of cargo at the Port of La Spezia. 

Similar solutions will also be available at the intermodal centres operated by Contship Italia Group, the parent company that manages La Spezia Container Terminal and customers will have a several integrated solutions available to them during this challenging time, with more storage options and services to meet current market needs. 

Concerted efforts

The Port System Authority of the Eastern Ligurian Sea welcomed the collaboration to support the vital economic activities in northern and central Italy.

Such initiatives, they noted, will hopefully minimize the economic impact and avoid further sacrifices following the slowdown in production and orders caused by the virus emergency as many analysts currently predict the pandemic could have a double-digit impact on many industrial supply-chains.

"The port of La Spezia once again demonstrates its unity with regard to the market by putting itself into its customers shoes and identifying short and medium-term solutions that can minimize the financial impact and allow the port to maintain its level of operations," said Carla Roncallo, president of Port System Authority of the Eastern Ligurian Sea. 

She noted that the arrangement also provides them the flexibility and agility to resume operations when there are signs of recovery, which we hope will come soon

Alessandro Laghezza, President of Sistema Porto and the Logistics Section of Confindustria La Spezia, affirmed the effort made to coordinate such a comprehensive and dynamic solution.

“It is encouraging to witness this historic moment where shippers in our territory and the management of the Contship Group rallied together in just 24 hours to assess every possible storage and transportation solution available in the short and medium-range, to support port customers who now face another big blow to their businesses due to the suspension of receiving and industrial activities," he said.

Each week, three services from Asia call at the Port of La Spezia deploying containerships with a capacity of more than 14,000 TEUs, operated by 2M, THE Alliance and Ocean Alliance.

"We are committed to offering all our capabilities and operational resources to help wherever possible the customers and local operators of the port of La Spezia. They will be able to access our integrated intermodal solutions that we believe are the mark of the unique offering of Contship Italia Group" said Daniele Testi, Contship Italia Group Director of Marketing and Communications.

Factory production in China is recovering, albeit slowly and are now shipping the back log of orders that built up during the lock-down imposed in January and February by the Chinese government.