The economy of the sea, or rather the shipping market, is valid in the world 450 billion dollars and employs 13,5 million people. In Italy, ports represent the main distribution and positioning partner of Italian manufacturing products for access to international markets and consumers: 55% of Italian extra-EU exports (112 billion out of a total of 205 billion), 30% of the total (140 out of 463 billion) and between 65 and 80% of those destined for the USA, Brazil, China and India, depart from the ports. But the economy of the sea is also closely linked to that of the land and to all the infrastructures and the logistics chain that move goods to and from the ports. This was discussed in Genoa on the occasion of the conference "Digital infrastructures and logistics of goods", organized by Uirnet, the national digital logistics platform, and by Digital Logistics, with a precise focus: while we talk about Silk Road, with an agreement that will change the face of the ports of Genoa and Trieste, how much competitive disadvantage is the failure to digitize everything that has to do with the port economy from land?
“The creation and commissioning of digital infrastructures is essential for the future socio-economic development of Italy, but also to recover the competitiveness lost in the last 20 years compared to the ports of Northern Europe and the emerging Mediterranean ones, such as Morocco, Egypt, Turkey and Greece,” he says Rodolfo De Dominicis, president and CEO of Uirnet. In fact, Italy remains among the great European and world port systems, but with increasing downward risks and progressive marginalization from the major international trade routes: the current inefficiencies on the infrastructural and logistic front they weigh each year for values between 25 and 35 billion euros, equivalent to 1,5-2% of GDP. And we must add the positive impact and benefits that can be generated by the PLN (i.e. the ecosystem involving carriers, shippers, terminals, freight villages, ports, shipowners, companies, intermodal centres, railways and port authorities) in terms of efficiency recovery in the system: between 7 and 10 billion euros, equal to 7,5% of the GDP in the logistics sector and 0,5% of the Italian GDP.
Genoa is the most striking example how much work there is still to be done. Despite being one of the main Italian ports (with 54,2 million tonnes handled in 2017 and positive growth trends compared to 2016, both for containerized and conventional traffic), it still does not have a railway connection network up to par, and everything became even more complicated after the collapse of the Morandi bridge, which isolated the Ligurian capital even more from the rest of the country. "As regards logistics, connections and storage and sorting centers for goods, the idea is to create even more opportunities by also exploiting the spaces inland, beyond the Apennines", he said the mayor of Genoa Marco Bucciwho attended the conference. However, the problem remains isolation, pending the completion of fundamental works such as the Third Pass, which would link Genoa and its port to the major commercial axes designed by the European project of railway corridors and which in Italy proceeds very slowly, as also demonstrated the affair of the Turin-Lyon railway line.
“If you want to get out of the current situation of relative efficiency of the national logistics system – added De Dominicis – the state cannot stand by and watch, but must intervene with careful monitoring of the progress of the system, constant verification of the performance of the individual players and, above all, must continue to promote – but this time definitively – a third-party system that is able to collect, examine and manage data flows that come from the field for the decision-making purposes that pertain to it". "Through the digital transformation of Italian logistics and by launching an offer of innovative services on the market aimed at digitizing the logistics chain - said Fabrizio Perrone, CEO of Digital Logistics – we can create an ecosystem, consolidating and cultivating the experiences developed together with a network of partners, making available the best skills in the sector and enhancing local experiences. This means creating value, using the savings generated by the reduction of system inefficiencies to provide a return and continue to attract public and private market investments".
