Almost two years after the restart of the container terminal in the port of Taranto, the Turkish group Yilport, concessionaire of the infrastructure, rewrites the industrial plan. The difficulties inherent in the restart (the terminal was stopped for five years due to the abandonment of the previous Evergreen concessionaire) and the pandemic, have blown up the objectives that Yilport had set itself through the concessionary company San Cataldo Container Terminal (SCCT). This, in recent weeks, has led the president of the Ionian Sea Port System Authority, port of Taranto, Sergio Prete, to challenge the company for failing to achieve the objectives on container traffic and investments for modernization.
The revocation of the concession is envisaged
Prete proposed the revocation of the concession, relating to 1,800 linear meters of quay and one million square meters of remaining areas, or, alternatively, its revision. Following the letter from the Authority, positive signs have come from Yilport for a remediation of the situation. And now Yilport announces a new business plan for the next few weeks. The company speaks of “restructuring for the operational plan of the SCCT” and of “a real reset for SCCT in Taranto after 8 years of inactivity of the terminal”. «To date – specifies the company – the terminal is operational with 7 quay cranes, 16 RMGs, 15 port fifth wheels and 2 locomotives. Two refurbished warehouses and a workshop are also in use in the terminal. Starting from 1 July 2022 – the company declares – the first train will be operational in the terminal “while” the Port Authority will take care of dredging operations that will allow the draft up to -16.5 meters in the shortest possible time “. For the company, «on the basis of these premises, new targets were discussed with a collaborative and constructive approach by all partners. The same will be presented by Yilport as part of a revised operational plan that will be submitted to the attention of the Authority in the coming weeks ».
Yilport: 20 million already invested
Yilport also stated that it has already invested 20 million euros in the Taranto infrastructure. According to the Authority and the trade unions, the new plan must be realistic and calibrated on the actual ability of the group to bring traffic to Taranto precisely because the first two years were far from the programmatic objectives declared by the terminal operator. On the basis of the revised plan, the Authority will carry out the assessments and make decisions. «Yilport – explains President Prete – presented us with the difficulties, some objective, others not. We now await the revised industrial plan to see if a new sharing of activities is possible. Yilport said there is room for improvement. You have to prove it to us. We have not yet entered into the merits of the new traffic ».
Technical examination for deeper dredging
Regarding dredging to increase the depth of the seabed in front of the container terminal so that larger ships can dock, Prete declares «that the technical examination imposed by the new decree on environmental impact assessment is underway. It will be completed within a few weeks, after which the works can be started. The overall economic picture amounts to approximately 80 million and relates to dredging and a crate for the deposit of dredged materials, the latter already built ».
the position of the trade unions
Michele De Ponzio of Cgil, Oronzo Fiorino of Cisl and Carmelo Sasso of Uil declare «that they have taken note of the new declarations of Yilport. However, since commitments have already been proposed on other occasions that have not been kept, we want to see what is concrete in the new business plan. We want to see the Yilport contracts, the official documents that say which traffic and which groups will come to Taranto ». «When Yilport obtained the concession – the unionists recall -, he presented a series of expressions of interest. He said that there were several parties interested in using the container terminal ». «The situation – the trade unionists observe – went differently. The traffics were clearly below the expectations for which Yilport has to prove that this time he is serious ».