Container terminal
Taranto’s huge potential as a commercial hub port was unlocked in June 2001 with the opening of a container terminal – one of the most modern in the Mediterranean – with an annual handling capacity of over 2 million teu.
This state-of-the-art terminal, located on the Multipurpose Pier, can rely on extensive support services and is operated by Taranto Container Terminal S.p.A., part of the Taiwanese group Evergreen Marine Corporation, one of the world’s leading container shipping companies.
Throughput has grown steadily from 150,000 teu in 2002 to about 900,000 teu in 2006.
Taranto’s container terminal, with its own shipping lines, is an important hub for services to the Near, Middle and Far East, the Americas and Europe. There are four mainline services and five feeder services currently taking cargo throughout the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Transhipment accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the terminal’s business, while the remaining 10 per cent – and still climbing – is made up of imports and exports.
Terminal for steel industry
Steelmaking has been the main engine of Taranto’s economy since the early 1960s when a major steelworks was established there. Privatised in 1994 and acquired by the RIVA Group, this steelworks is run by ILVA S.p.A.
The Taranto plant has maintained its leading position in the world market in spite of mixed fortunes in the steelmaking sector in the course of the 1980s.
The steel industry is the Port of Taranto’s biggest customer. ILVA has the concession at four piers (Nos 2, 3, 4 and 5) and one quay (No 3) providing a total of 4,589 metres of wharfage with up to 25.0 metres draught and 931,000 square metres of operating areas. These facilities are used for discharging raw materials such as coal and iron ore and for loading and discharging finished and semi-finished products including billets, coils, pipes, sheets and slabs.
Total annual throughput of steel-related traffic is over 30 million tonnes including raw materials and finished products. Annual throughput of finished products is about 10 million tonnes.
Oil terminal
ENI S.p.A. has a concession to operate a 560 metre jetty with 1,120 metres of berthage for loading and discharging crude oil, refined products and by-products. Transhipment is by a conveyor system linking the jetty with the refinery.
The ENI refinery is supplied with raw materials by tankers of up to 300,000 dwt accommodated at single-buoy moorings in Mar Grande. An underwater pipeline takes crude oil directly from tanker to refinery. In an average year, the facility handles between 5 and 5.5 million tonnes.
In addition to the current volume of activity, the refinery is looking to receive and partly refine crude oil from fields in Val d’Agri, in the neighbouring region of Basilicata. ENI has planned an extension of the oil jetty to meet the new requirements for both crude oil and finished products.
Cement terminal
Cementir S.p.A. has a concession to load and discharge cement at Quay 4 (300 metres long with up to 12.5 metres draught) and on a 167metre section of Pier 4 (east side). The terminal has an annual throughput of 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes.
The berth is linked with the nearby cement works by a mobile bridge and conveyor system capable of handling either 2,400 bags or 400 tonnes of clinker per hour.