The detractors of the Bridge over the Strait and of the great connecting works in Sicily argue that “both Sicilians would continue to take the plane to go to Rome”, or that “a colossal work is not done just to pass a few kilos of oranges “. The best objection is to show how an evolved South benefits the North.
The arrival of infrastructures brings with it the development of the economic activities of that territory, from research to heavy and light industry up to startups; and at the same time, if this happens in the South, it favors the rapid supply of the industry of the North and the consumption in the South of what the North produces. This is what happened in Campania with the arrival of the high-speed railway. Here, around the CNR and the other research centers, not least that of San Giovanni a Teduccio, flourishing districts and production chains have developed, the excellences of aeronautics, automotive, agri-food and pharmaceuticals. Freight traffic has increased more than tenfold. The immediate birth of the Zes and the connection of Gioia Tauro to the high speed and intermodal terminals of Nola and Marcianise have rekindled the engines of international container traffic towards the lower Tyrrhenian Sea. Following the favorable wind of “Matera Capital of Culture”, Basilicata is moving in this direction around the CNR and research centers, to be ready when the Naples-Bari is completed. Here, here the train has arrived and has given equal dignity to a territory so far condemned to underdevelopment and illegality. Here those who want to do well and according to the rules now have the conditions to succeed.
Why is this possible? Because the route from Naples to the Milanese hub of Melzo, which sorts goods to Northern Europe, continues to travel by road in almost 10 hours, while on the high-speed train it covers itself in just 4 hours. Here’s what makes the difference.
The rest of the South is standing on the station platform waiting for the same train. Located on the same latitude as Campania, also a land of productive districts, industrial and export excellence, Puglia does not have access to equal dignity. From Bari to Melzo it takes more than ten hours, by road or by train, and this makes any business activity non-competitive and cuts off ports, airports and logistics from international traffic of goods in the Mediterranean. The lack of fast connections along the Adriatic ridge then isolates the entire port network up to Trieste: Crotone, Corigliano, Taranto, Brindisi, Bari, Ortona, Ancona, Ravenna and Venice. Trieste is saturated and the main shipowners are now aiming for other ports. The map we publish, created by the Srm study center in Naples connected to Intesa Sanpaolo, displays the GPS trails left by container ships in transit in the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal in 2020: the red bands indicate the routes that were most frequented. Here, for the first time compared to previous years, it can be seen that the Adriatic basin has in fact been abandoned, and even from the Strait of Messina to Genoa the colored band has faded, while the flow on the hub of Gioia Tauro. For the rest, almost all the ships from Suez head through Gibraltar to Rotterdam and Antwerp, enormously lengthening the navigation because there is no free hub that allows you to immediately arrive in Northern Europe with processed goods. Gioia Tauro itself is unable to make more than 5 million Teus a year because it has no rear port and the railway connection was inaugurated a few months ago.
But how, Sicily isn’t there with Augusta? Well, Palermo-Melzo can be traveled in almost 20 hours, on rubber as well as on iron. From Reggio Calabria it is over 15 hours. And there is no equipped air cargo terminal either. Nor the stable crossing of the Strait of Messina. Nor the high-speed rail.
This is what these great works are for: to intercept the enormous volume of goods that every day sails a few miles from the Sicilian coast, developing the rear port and the interport of Catania from Augusta in synergistic connection with Gioia Tauro, and with Taranto which must relaunch the port and the former Ilva area.
In this moment in which the world demand for goods exceeds production, making Sicily and Calabria, with Campania, Puglia and Basilicata the logistics hub of the Mediterranean would bounce the growth of the whole of Italy.
The teams of Srm economists, coordinated by CEO Massimo Deandreis and Alessandro Panaro, head of the Maritime Economy, together with those of Alex Bank (Egyptian subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo) led by CEO Dante Campioni, have updated the study on the Maritime Economy of the Canale di Suez, highlighting how commercial traffic in 2020 increased by 0.6% despite the pandemic, thanks to the need to guarantee, with 18,829 ships, rapid supplies to the many countries in “lockdown”. In fact, the dry bulk has grown by 21.7% compared to 2019. This is an increase to which must be added the ships often diverted to the Cape of Good Hope due to the intense traffic. The prospect should induce the national government to accelerate on logistics and transport works in the South: for 2021, Srm and Alex Bank expect a recovery of + 4.8% in the Eastern Mediterranean and + 8.9% in the Western Mediterranean, in 2022 the rebound will be + 4.6% and + 5.5% respectively.