New fuel standards that will become effective in 2020, will favor the ports closer to the main maritime routes such as Suez and Gibraltar, says an article published in FreshPlaza.
Regulation to cost
The new guidelines on ship fuel introduced by the IMO to reduce emissions and safeguard the environment. The regulation establishes that ships must reduce SOx from the current 3.5%m/m to below 0.5%m/m (mass per mass).
This is a considerable change and might be costly for operators not only because of increasing diesel prices, but also as companies will need to make investments purchasing new container ships.
Costlier hiring
The president of the Taranto Port Authority Sergio Prete explains that, “said choice will favor the ports closer to the main maritime routes such as Suez and Gibraltar. Hiring will most probably become more costly. When it comes to the Taranto port, traffic in 2019 has been mainly linked to industrial, oil and cruise activities.”
Global trade by sea is destined to increase over the next few years (+3.8% in 2019-2023) and Asia will be the continent with the best potential when it comes to container handling.
At the moment, Italy does not seem to be growing that much from this point of view.
Global container traffic in 2019
Federspedi report
- The global container traffic in 2019 should reach 175 million Teu, i.e. a 1.7% increase compared to 2018.
- An average annual increase (CAGR) of 2.7% since 2011 (DynaLiners).
Alphaliners statistics
- Ships between 7,500 and 9,999 Teu represent 19% of the global container vessel fleet, while those exceeding 10,000 Teu represent 33%.
- The trend does not seem to be stopping, considering that 79% of the ships being delivered in 2019 has a capacity that exceeds 10,000 Teu.
Sergio Prete added, “The Taranto port will be operative soon as well. We expect traffic to increase as of 2020 and the container terminals should become operative.”
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Source: FreshPlaza
