Half a billion euros to build five “car carrier” ships, the latest generation of ferries. To be added to the 20 units, worth 2 billion, expected by 2025. The investment plan of the Grimaldi group, the main Italian shipping company, continues in forced stages, as confirmed in Valencia by the managing director Manuel Grimaldi. The new investments all concern the latest generation “eco-friendly” ships, which are added to the 12 new units that were taken over in the two-year period 2020-2021, despite the pandemic, and which allowed the group to reduce Polluting emissions.
In Valencia, with the Euromed conference, Grimaldi brought together 500 top international players from the world of finance, logistics and ports to take stock of the sector’s prospects, with a focus on decarbonisation of the maritime sector as a strategic development factor. Without prejudice to the goal, which the world of the sea has set itself at a global level, of achieving zero emissions in 2050, Manuel Grimaldi stressed the importance for shipowners to continue investing in new technologies and new fuels. The entrepreneur has insisted on research to reduce consumption, arguing that it is counterproductive to raise taxes on fuels to push towards greener solutions.
“The issue of emissions is an issue that we cannot afford to underestimate – said Ugo Salerno, president and CEO of Rina – It is necessary to implement all the technologies at our disposal, even those not yet fully mature”. Salerno has broken a spear in favor of nuclear power. «Nuclear energy will have to be the protagonist of decarbonization. In Italy, unfortunately, the subject is faced from an ideological rather than a scientific point of view. Yet we all know that next generation nuclear power offers very high levels of safety. On the other hand, nuclear propulsion has been used in Arctic shipping for 26 years and there has never been an accident. The ideology must be put aside. Do you know how much surface is needed to produce a megawatt from solar energy? From 7 to 8 thousand square meters. Imagining a solar-powered ship is simply impossible … If we talk about hydrogen, then, it must be remembered that 90% of what is currently produced causes 10 tons of CO2 emissions for every ton produced. And how is ammonia produced? With hydrogen. Grimaldi is right when he says that the first objective of shipping must be to reduce consumption. That’s where we have to start ».
An example? In 2019, the ships engaged by Grimaldi on the line between Livorno, Savona, Barcelona and Valencia transported 120,293 trailers for a total of 144,881 tons of CO2 emissions. In 2021, thanks to the entry into service of the new green ships, the trailers transported on the same route were 149,950 (25% more), but CO2 emissions fell to 109,683 tons (-24%).
Grimaldi Group, which belongs to the family of the same name, is based in Naples and controls a fleet of over 140 ships employing 15,000 employees. In 2019 the Neapolitan company has a turnover of about 3 billion, while last year, due to a pandemic, the proceeds fell to 2.5 billion. In 2021, however, the CEO assured, “it will close in a very positive way”. The group is a multinational logistics company specializing in roll-on / roll-off ship, car carrier and ferry operations and includes seven shipping companies.
Maritime connections are the hub of a much more advanced logistics chain, which includes 22 port terminals in 12 countries around the world and road transport companies.
In addition to the new ships, the group led by Manuel Grimaldi and chaired by his brother Gianluca aims at the acquisition of three ports in Greece, where the government, which has sold Piraeus to the Chinese, is also selling other ports: Igoumenitsa, Heraklion and Corfu. In Italy, however, the Neapolitan shipowner looks to new spaces on the docks of Genoa, Livorno, Ravenna and Palermo.