Grimaldi’s complaint about the alleged unfair competition by Dfds, which it claims is ‘guilty’ of occupying space at the Hhla Plt Italy terminal (the former Trieste Logistics Platform) while being the controlling shareholder of other terminals in the port (Samer Seaports & Terminals) with the aim of hindering the competition from the Neapolitan player, has produced the first effects.
According to reports from Il Piccolo, this observation has been taken up by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the local Port System Authority, to the extent that Dfds and Ulusoy, another company active in ro-ro connections with Turkey, would have moved one of their weekly calls (out of a total of three and two, respectively) operated in Trieste to their respective controlled terminals (Samer and Timt at Moli V and VI). And Dfds would be considering, in this context, the opportunity of adding a second ship on the line with Egypt launched at the end of 2024, as initially planned.
The freed-up space was immediately occupied by Grimaldi, with the announcement of adding a fourth vessel on the route, and for its part, Hhla, given the circumstances, is moving in various ways to try to expand and optimize spaces for ro-ro, for example by demolishing the covered structures of the former timber yard after giving up wood-related traffic (transferred to Monfalcone) to rationalize parking areas.
But its minority yet significant shareholder, MSC, would have deployed – writes (in the indicative) Il Piccolo – even its chief executive officer Soren Toft to plead the Danish cause directly with the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini: “The meeting took place in recent days and served to open a dialogue between the parties. On that occasion, the Danish executives claimed to have increased the volumes of the port of Trieste thanks to the use of the Platform since it became operational in 2021, while at the same time eliminating the queues of heavy vehicles on the highway. The other argument is that a return to 100% at Molo V would saturate the areas, forcing the company to reduce the 70 weekly trains achieved (with peaks of up to 90) in favor of a greater use of the more polluting road transport.”
