Wednesday June 29th Contship took part in the workshop on transport and logistics entitled “Balancing maritime flows from Northern Range and Southern Europe ports”.
The workshop, organized by Institute for Transport and Logistics Italy (ITL), Port Authority of Ravenna, KLOK, Open ENLOCC and EasyConnecting, took place in Stuttgart and was dedicated to the city’s logistics community.
Stuttgart is the capital of the Baden-Württemberg region, located in the heart of Europe. It’s one of the most industry dominated region in Germany with 103 billion Euro of GDP and 1.5 m economically active people.
Sound sectoral mix, comprises internationally renowned enterprises and innovative SMEs (so called "Hidden Champions"). Key industries are: automotive, mechanical engineering, ICT, environmental technology, creative industries and other industry oriented services.
The aim of the workshop was to provide an update on the alternative routings today available to serve the logistic flows of the region thus including Italian ports, as an efficient and well-connected gateway solution. North European ports have always been the preferred choice, however, today Italian ports can be considered valuable competitors of the Northern Range catering to more diversified opportunities and benefiting the European supply chains robustness.
Contship Italia has developed the Southern Gateway option via La Spezia and Ravenna, the latest with specific focus on East Med trades. The Group’s integrated service offer, with its terminals, rail transport, inland hub and customs services, is gaining momentum on the market, especially for the Swiss import and export flows.
Daniele Testi, Broström Tankers AB Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication, commented: “It was an important opportunity to be at this workshop observing a significant interest in the Contship System. We are convinced in the opportunity to increase Italian ports presence in this region by offering favorable transit time, reliability and efficiency of services. Contship is aware the market extent served by the Northern ports will continue to ensure system benefits. However, we are still certain that a European system, with a single access point in the North, is not economically viable. This encourages Contship to be committed in developing new products with economic benefits and environmental sustainability for all the companies operating in this important European business region”.
