Contship declares Civitavecchia interest

Chief executive Marco Simonetti has said that the organisation would like to be “an integral part of this challenge”.

Civitavecchia, the closest port to Rome, first mooted development of a box terminal in its 2006 plan, although this was only given official approval in 2012. The original design, however, has been amended to allow 18,000 teu ships to call as of 2017.

Port president Pasqualino Monti notes that, currently, the port handles just 10% of the traffic generated by its hinterland of Rome, Lazio and Umbria, which amounts to some 750,000 teu. The aim is to grow this to 75%.

Influenced by Tanger-Med’s assembly of semi-finished products, a 5m sq m industrial area will be developed around the port, said Mr Monti.

The €400m cost of the work, which includes a new breakwater, is “already available to the Authority”.

A consortium, Port Company, was put together in 2006 to undertake construction of the deepwater terminal. The group is owned by Gavius (65%), Unicredit (25%) and Enel (10%).