The port of Salerno closes 2018 with a 5% decrease in ro-ro traffic. This is what emerges from the surveys provided by the Port System Authority of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea: at the end of December, in fact, 7.730.023 units were handled between cars and heavy vehicles compared to 8.174.621 units in 2017. «In the first two months of the last year – explains Domenico De Rosa, managing director of the Smet group – our port has lost 16,16% of its ro-ro traffic. The closing figure, which stands at -5%, therefore testifies that the trend reversal is already underway, which I believe will continue also during 2019».

The decrease, according to De Rosa, is linked to multiple reasons but «all attributable to a particular geopolitical contingency: the war of duties has certainly not favored the free movement of goods and has slowed down the export activity by the manufacturing industry. The CEO of Smet hopes that “at the national level, major infrastructural works, vital for transport and for all productive sectors of the country, will be completed as soon as possible».

For the port of Salerno, on the other hand, De Rosa wanted to point out that all operators are waiting with confidence for both the activation of the Special Economic Zone, «which will give a strong boost to the real economy, especially in the South which is strategic for the development of the country». Equally precious will be the dredging intervention «which will allow our port to accommodate ships of increasing size, thus taking advantage of the opportunities of a historical moment that sees the armament increasingly oriented to naval gigantism».