The Mediterranean Sea is the basis of a consolidated maritime port cluster among the most solid globally”
Three of the top four Ro-Ro operators in the world are Italian
Italy is a geographical platform at the center of the Mediterranean, but it is in no way a logistical platform; Piano Mare and Piano Mattei seem to want to enhance this potential
Geopolitical Vulgate
In recent years, the common geopolitical Vulgate had seemed to progressively change its approach to the Mediterranean Sea, from a free and peaceful sea between continents, cradles of varied civilizations (Europe, Asia and Africa), to a commercial connection (Middle Ocean) between Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
The Belt & Road Initiative:
A clear example of this attitude can be observed by comparing the official Chinese cartography of the Belt & Road Initiative: in the first version, when it was still called the New Silk Road, the line starting from China ended in Venice, in the latest version the line entered to Suez and continued without touching land to Gibraltar and then got lost in the Atlantic.
The choke points
In this transit sea, the key role was played by the choke points (Gibraltar and Suez, primarily) in a context of port development, described as widespread and inefficient and in a climate of political subordination to the interests of Northern European countries ( equipped, yes, with a few large and efficient ports).
US Navy
The progressive disengagement by the US Navy, guarantor of the established order for more than half a century, but now increasingly focused on the Indo-Pacific, was the consequential litmus test.
Similar scenario
In a similar scenario, in which as much as 30-40% of the 12% of world traffic that passed through the Mediterranean (1.5% of global waters) did so without touching any port (which is the fastest way to connect Asia, Northern Europe and North America),
Many thought that the Red Sea crisis, which began on 19 October 2023, with the first Houthi attack on a commercial ship, would bring the blue economy of the area to its knees.
A different picture
Just over a year later, reading the data gives us a different picture than what we might have expected. Unlike what was predicted by Zeno D’Agostino, president of ESPO (European Sea Ports Organisation), despite the ships not passing through Suez (-49% the overall figure for the first nine months of 2024 with the peak of -71% for container ships ), the Mediterranean ports did not return to 1868, the year the Canal opened and the old Mare Nostrum did not turn into a closed lake.
A transit sea
From a non-container-centric perspective, the Mediterranean appears, first of all, not as a transit sea, but as the basis of a consolidated maritime port cluster among the most solid globally:
Greece : The first country in the world for ship ownership
“Little” Greece, as confirmed in the recent “2024 Review of Maritime Transport” published by UNCTAD, remains the first country in the world for ship ownership, both for capacity (16.9% of the fleet, ahead of China, Japan and Singapore), both in terms of value (11.8%, ahead of China, Japan and the United States).Its ships, only 12.7% flying the national flag, are the most present in bulk traffic (both solid and liquid) in ports in every area of the planet and its owners are unanimously recognized as the most capable of reading the markets . If you had to choose who is the “commercial ship power” on a global level, Greece would probably compete as the favorite
Malta and Cyprus
The even smaller Malta and Cyprus have organized an administrative structure for the registration of ships to make their flags the first and third in Europe (the second, however, is Greece), well ahead of countries with a more historic maritime vocation such as the United Kingdom or Norway.The two Mediterranean island nations are proving capable of competing in terms of efficiency and service with the main flags of convenience in the world (Malta is the seventh in terms of registered tonnage). Among other things, the introduction of the Global Tax is pushing several shipping giants, previously based in tax havens, to actually relocate to these countries
The cruise sector has its second global market
The cruise sector has its second global market in terms of fleet use in the Mediterranean and Italy is the leading ship-building country (34.3% of the global market, according to SACE data), a record that is repeated in production and exports of medium-large yachts (23.2%).
The leader of RO RO in Italy
Three of the top four Ro-Ro operators in the world are Italian (the leader is the Grimaldi group of Naples), with ferry freight traffic having grown in our country more than any other sector in the last decade.
Related : Emanuele Grimaldi re-elected as Chairman of ICS of two years.
The container sector
Even the container sector itself, however, although seriously impacted by the Bab Al Mandeb blockade, has demonstrated a very rapid ability to adapt and reorganize.
The Cape of Good Hope
The traffic that follows the route from the Cape of Good Hope and no longer passes through Suez has been distributed, in a transhipment logic, among the ports closest to Gibraltar (Tangier, Barcelona, Valencia, even involving Marseille and Genoa) and then been distributed with feeder ships in the eastern Mediterranean, where the Houthi effect (added to the Black Sea crisis) has, however, had the greatest effects (think of the drop in traffic from Piraeus, despite its Chinese control, or to Adriatic ports).
Mediterranean ports
Mediterranean ports are taking advantage of the current crisis to rethink themselves and to broaden their action front (think of ports as energy hubs, for example).
The Largest Shipping Lines
Furthermore, it should not be overlooked that two of the top three global liners in the container sector (where 4 out of 5 – MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag Lloyd – are European), are to all intents and purposes considered Mediterranean: by name, ownership and prevailing interests , the Genevan MSC and by headquarters and control the French, based in Marseille, CMA CGM. The orderbook at the shipyards of new ships suggests that the two Mediterranean Liners will be the global leaders starting from 2026 (MSC is already the first in the world today) and the “Gemini” alliance between the Danish Maersk and the German Hapag Lloyd has been read by many, even in its name, as a defense of the two Northern European carriers pushed into a corner by their Latin competitors.
Related : Confitarma : Impact simulations for Shipping costs of Trump tariff
The vertical integration of maritime carriers
It is interesting to note how the much-maligned vertical integration of maritime carriers, which exploited the enormous profits generated in the Covid years to acquire terminals and land services companies, seems to be a source of rooting in the territory: think of the growth in traffic, in the first half of 2024, in Gioia Tauro resulting from the strategic choice of its concessionaire MSC to anesthetize the failed passage from Suez by continuing to use the Calabrian port as a transhipment hub for its ships.
Italy have rediscovered its own Mediterranean vocation
After years of turning its back on the sea (read the illuminating “Italy is afraid of the sea” by Francesco Maselli, published by NR), Italy seems to have, for the first time in the republic era, rediscovered its own Mediterranean vocation, with a careful look at what happens on the southern shore of the Mare Nostrum. The Sea Plan and the Mattei Plan seem to coherently outline a vision of our country as a mix between Port and Sea Power.
Italy :A geographical platform at the center of the Med no a logistics platform
Italy is a geographical platform at the center of the Mediterranean, but it is in no way a logistics platform. The mountain ridges that divide the North from neighboring countries and the Apennines which make the east/west movement of goods complex and expensive (think of the Naples-Bari, or Rome-Ancona connections), make our widespread port system a calibrated asset on real service needs to local economies with limited opportunities for economies of scale.
Only lack of knowledge of the fundamentals of the sector can allow someone to compare it with the port system of Northern Europe, which are dimensionally scalable logistics platforms, with ease of connection with a large hinterland that can be served on the plains or even across waterways ( think of the Rhine and the port of Basel).
In 2037 it is predicted that the African population will be three times that of Europe
In 2037 it is predicted that the African population will be three times that of Europe (four times in 2047). It seems clear that although we are not certain that the future of the global economy can really be in Africa, we can certainly say that for us Mediterraneans, it will depend heavily on Africa.
The development of the Maghreb countries
The development of the Maghreb countries as a manufacturing hub would put our Ro-Ro fleet in a position to eliminate the competitive advantage of Lo-Lo container ships over long distances and our ports in a privileged position compared to those of Northern Europe.
Clandestine migratory flows
The control and management of clandestine migratory flows by sea by our Coast Guard has lowered social tension on the issue, allowing our policy to add different angles of vision to the dossier relating to the other side of the Mare Nostrum.
The six lines of intervention of the Mattei Plan
The six lines of intervention of the Mattei Plan (education and training, health, agriculture, water, energy and infrastructure), to be implemented from a cooperative and non-predatory perspective, can be based on an economic endowment (5.5 billion euros) without previous ones and integrate, in a logic of “sea that unites the lands it divides” with the guidelines of the Sea Plan.
The Strait of Sicily
The Strait of Sicily is one of the key hubs of submarine cables for data transmission and its surveillance becomes vital for the development of our country, even more so at a time when the direct military presence of third countries (Russia and Turkey) in Libya and the resourcefulness of the Algerian navy require us to play an active role in the area
Drewry : The 2023-2028 update,
It is probably in this perspective that the 2023-2028 update, made in October this year, on container traffic by Drewry should be read: global growth 3%, growth of the entire Med 3.4% and growth of North Africa 3.7%…regardless of Sue
Sourcs :Shipping Italy +other sources
