Adriatic box terminal Trieste Marine Terminal SpA (TMT) could be benefitting from rising bunker prices.
The cost of fuel could be persuading lines to call at terminals like TMT in the Adriatic region instead of sailing farther afield to northern European hub ports, a shipping superintendent with a global box liner told Portworld.
“Carriers who need to reach central and eastern European markets need not waste the cost and several days of sailing to reach the [northern] European hub ports,” he said.
Facilities in Trieste and the other Adriatic ports of Koper in Slovenia and Rijeka in Croatia have long sought to become the gateways for central and eastern Europe, according to a Lloyd's List report.
Analysts say rising throughput in the region seems to prove that liners are indeed beginning to choose Adriatic ports over the conventional northern hubs in order to save costs.
Throughput at TMT jumped 21.39% in 2007 from the year before to 268,000 TEUs.
TMT president Fabrizio Zerbini has been quoted as saying that the rising throughput is not "solely attributable to the rising cost of the alternative".
"It is also linked to the changes that have taken place at TMT over the last three years," said Zerbini. "The workforce has changed and the way we work has changed since we moved from straddle carriers to rail-mounted gantries and reach stackers."
Zerbini also highlighted upcoming equipment purchases, investments, a movement of rail line to boost stacking capacity and possible expansion - all in an effort to handle close to 350,000 TEUs this year.
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