MSC has taken a 45% stake in Trieste Marine Terminal (TMT) and is expected to double its contribution to the northeast Italian facility’s volumes.
Pierluigi Maneschi, head of TO Delta, which operates TMT, told the Italian newspaper Il Piccolo that MSC holding company Marinvest had acquired the share in the container terminal.
Sources close to Maneschi said MSC paid about EUR20 million (USD 22 million), according to the newspaper.
“Today [MSC] accounts for 20% of the Trieste container traffic and that should increase to 40%, also because probably from next spring MSC will bring here 14,000 teu container ships, the biggest that have ever called in Trieste,” Maneschi told the newspaper.
MSC also has a presence at Italian box terminals at Gioia Tauro, Livorno, Naples, and La Spezia.
Last year, Trieste port authority extended TO Delta’s concession at the terminal until 2074. Under a clause in its agreement with the operator, MSC could increase its holding in TMT to 50%, although TO Delta would still retain majority control, according to Il Piccolo.
TMT has set out an ambitious USD211 million expansion plan to double its capacity and area, extending the terminal seawards.
MSC’s expansion at Trieste is seen as part of a joint strategy by the 2M Alliance to expand its presence in the Adriatic, at the southern end of several key trans-Europe cargo corridors that will form part of the TEN-T network.
Maersk Line is also increasing the volume of containers it sends to the nearby Slovenian port of Koper, which forms with Trieste the Adriatic’s two most important gateway terminals for central and eastern Europe.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
