It’s boom of world trade. After the dark period of the contagion emergency, the rebound is driven by shipping. It is an international dimension which also includes Genoa and its port. There is a deadline to keep an eye on, 2026. Last date to use the funds that Europe guarantees us. It is also the period in which the time schedule establishes the birth of the new port of Genoa. The new breakwater, the last mile of roads and railways. There will already be the Third Pass.
But the recovery is now. Is 2026 Not Too Far? Does Genoa have what it takes to engage such a fruitful recovery today? We also talked about this yesterday in the Genoese stage of the Alphabet of the future, the tour of the Press, the 19th Century and the GNN newspapers dedicated to the great challenges that await us.
“We are the past and the future of commerce – says the mayor Marco Bucci – and with commerce comes people, culture and now data: we are the access point of the great big data cables in Italy”. But if world trade has gotten into the march of recovery, Genoa always pays for the delay on infrastructures: the Third Pass and the new Dam will not be fully operational for at least three to four years. Long lead times, for those looking to business on a global scale. “True, but the real investor is the one who invests first, not when things are there. And we are offering the perspective, the certainty of having these things. And have faith in the territory. We have demonstrated it with the bridge and today we are able to do this: having shown at the Boat Show what the Waterfront will be like in two years has generated a crazy hype ».
Already today on the container ships there is no space to transport everything. The trade boom is today and, explains the president of Federspedi Silvia Moretto, “our country is ready to take the opportunity of the PNRR and the resources it allocates to logistics”. But is our logistics able to ride the positive moment and do it immediately? «Our logistics – continues Moretti – has been suffering for years. We all realize how important it is to be competitive, our country was not ready to challenge the logistics giants even before. But we Italians always know how to find solutions ».
All ports in the world are trying to change their face. Will everything really be ready in Genoa in 2026? Optimist Paolo Emilio Signorini, president of the Port Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea: «Genoa as a system in the last three years has proved to be credible. It was a good thing to transfer the commissarial model of the bridge to the port. If we are good, yes, in 2026 everything will be ready ».
Passionate Aldo Spinelli, president of the Spinelli Group: «In the port of Genoa everything was wrong when we should have followed what the market was asking of us. Did Panama and Suez widen the canals? And we stood still. We made the terminals first, then the dam, with ships that cannot dock ». Will 2026 already be late for the recovery? «The Genoa railway plan is the most backward of all. Things have to be done. In Montecarlo they built the dam and the island in two and a half years ».
It is a picture shared, but with less pessimism, by Stefano Messina, executive vice president of Ignazio Messina & C. and president of Assarmatori: «I think Genoa can do it, 2026 is not too late: volumes are already growing. The trend is in the replacement of world shipping imposed by decarbonisation. It is a moment in which there has never been so much talk about the logistics supply chain ».
Our country has been handling 10 million containers for some time. From that number there is no disaffection. Who are we competing with then? Messina again: «Now we are not competing with anyone but we will have to do it, we will have to attack other markets. Italy is strategic. We can go and intercept market shares in Genoa where today we are at zero ».
The occupation. There is a research by the shippers, for Federspedi’s 75th anniversary, on the roles of the future. Moretto anticipates: «There are those in decline, those who can be replaced by technology. But also the emerging ones: the human resources and the team that can carry out, and communication and marketing ».
Same question for Signorini: «Covid has made it clear that the great European manufacturing had almost disappeared. Now we have become aware that we must be careful not to lose it. There are enormous opportunities for employment in Genoa too because now there are great difficulties in finding the workforce. There is no skilled labor for orders in the sector ».
Spinelli assures: «We are hiring, the raw materials target has grown by 42% more. Construction companies have no sand. They lack coal, slag, rubber ». Messina: «Great prospects come from the renewal of the ferry fleet with the investments of the shipowners. An Italian public and private shipbuilding industry. Italy can do it, our proposals are already from Minister Giovannini».