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Nella foto il Presidente di Assarmatori Stefano Messina con il Ministro Danilo Toninelli che ha concluso i lavori dell’incontro annuale[/caption]
The first "annual meeting" of Assarmatori, the association founded in January 2018 within Conftrasporto - Confcommercio, was held in Rome in mid-July. In his report, the president Stefano Messina, after having reviewed the phases and the motivations that led to the constitution of the new Association, recalled the essential data of the sea economy for Italy, which is worth about 3% of GDP, equal to 45 billion euros and employs over 880 thousand Italians. Assarmatori represents a fleet of over 450 ships (cruise services, container transport, ferry services, public transport, liquid and solid bulk transport) that employ around 6,000 people and over 60% of the total fleet of ro –ro ferry.
Maritime trade grew by 3.1% between 2017 and 2018, but Italian ports failed to seize this opportunity, maintaining a stable trend: "Italy must make its logistics chain more efficient" said Stefano Messina.
The European Union has also its responsibilities: "Its greatest failure was maritime policy and in particular the total non-existence" of a strategy for the Mediterranean. Assarmatori asks Europe for a sea policy aimed at restoring peace and protecting and increasing traffic, re-launching maritime infrastructure. "The doubling of the Suez Canal has led and will bring significant increases in intercontinental traffic on the East-West route, which Italy must be able to intercept," the new president added.
Although the maritime transport sector is the least climate-altering, the IMO (International Maritime Organization) has envisaged a substantial decarbonisation of maritime transport by 2050. "The shipowners have done and will do their part" the President added, then remember the next expiry of the 0.5% sulfur content limit "reduced by seven times in one fell swoop".
"These commitments make the idea of the economic effort that will have to be tackled very quickly, but the owners are resilient and the shipping will be ready, as it has always done". And it can be "even in the challenge towards the ECA Mediterranea (Emission Control Areas, with sulfur at 0.1%, ed), on condition that the foundations are finally laid for the use of alternative fuels such as the LNG" added with force the speaker who also asked why it is not yet possible to refuel LNG in Italy while it is possible in other European ports.
"In addition to infrastructure, we must accelerate the rules for bunkering procedures, already existing in Spain and France, our direct competitors, not to mention the Nordic countries where LNG is now the norm especially for ferries," concluded Stefano Massina of intervention dedicated to environmental policies.
Source: Full report HERE