New project for a hub in Sicily

The Sicilian port system for its central location in the Mediterranean and the proximity to the Suez Canal, doubled a few days ago, is a natural candidate to become the stopover port hub in southern Europe.

It is a natural evolution when you consider that, compared to a trip to Rotterdam, you would save days of sailing that mean especially fuel economy.

The Sicilian ports, as well as other Italian ports, are part of reform projects launched by the former Minister Maurizio Lupi and his successor Graziano Del Rio. The project name is “Core network” and it is considered to be strategic for Europe.

So there will be 14 port authorities in Italy, two in Sicily, which are one in Palermo for the western Sicily and Augusta for the eastern Sicily. The port of Messina should be included in the authority port of Gioia Tauro.

Augusto Cozzo, driving the Port Authority of Augusta, says Augusta is the port most suited to become the hub for goods in Sicily. “A unique and deep natural harbor, said in an interview – investments for 200 million euro until 2020, new docks and more operating space. We are the only port cluster – continued -,  to perform the function of shipbuilding, industrial and military as well. And we have a budget with a surplus of 150 million euro. ” The hub should take advantage of a “logistics platform that will attract large amounts of containers and sort each of them with different transport modes.” To return to talk of Rotterdam, Cozzo clarifies that the volume of cargo handled in Sicily would not be comparable to that of the great Dutch port, which, in addition to having an extensive and comprehensive infrastructure network counts on the large markets and a great number of big producers of the Rhine plain.

Cozzo a lawyer specialized in maritime law, also says we need to overcome the localism and the logic of competition with nearby Catania, better to get an agreement, focusing on different skills and create synergies to establish a single entity, the Port of the Ionian.