An analysis of short sea shipping container routes in the mediterranean and in the black sea

In this paper, an analysis of SSS container routes in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, with a focus on those routes calling at Italian ports, is performed. Italian container ports are classified in four groupings: Ligurian, north Adriatic and Campanian multi-port gateway clusters, and Italian hub port system. Firstly, the Italian maritime foreign trade is analyzed and it is compared to the total Italian foreign trade carried out by all means of transport. This survey has been accomplished in order to study the effects of the economic and financial crisis in Italy (which began in 2008 and is currently in force) on maritime transport. Then, the container throughput at all Italian ports is studied. From this study, it emerges that the most important Italian port cluster is the Ligurian one: its throughput has shown a positive trend; but the greatest growth rate is shown by the north Adriatic gateway cluster. Italian hub ports register instead a negative trend. Afterwards, SSS container routes of the year 2018 are analyzed. The detected routes are extensively reported in the Appendix of the paper. SSS container routes calling at Italian ports in the year 2018 are compared with those of 2010. The routes comparison has shown that, from 2010 to 2018, the number of routes crossing at least one Italian port, and their frequencies per month have decreased, but, for the majority of Italian ports, the number of routes and the frequencies per month have increased. This occurs because, from 2010 to 2018, routes have increased their length and the number of ports called. Among Italian port clusters, the most important is by far the Ligurian one, as regards both routes and departures, but also the northern Adriatic port cluster is important as regards SSS routes. While the Ligurian gateway cluster is crossed by several DSS routes, the north Adriatic traffic mainly relies on SSS and feeder routes, with transhipment in the Mediterranean hub ports of Gioia Tauro, Malta, Piraeus and Port Said.