Naples – The Grimaldi Group, in response to articles published in some press organs regarding the risk to the “model port” season in Trieste, in a statement firmly rejects the content of the declarations reported by Shipmag and attributed to Samer according to which “MIT and ADSP order DFDS to make room for Grimaldi ferries.”
Competition is essential to guarantee market competitiveness and opportunities for commercial exchanges under favorable conditions, as well as to allow end consumers to purchase goods and services under the best conditions. The Group believes that the entry of an operator of its caliber, which employs the best ships in terms of technology and capacity, can only benefit the port of Trieste, Italy, and Europe, considering that the majority of volumes arriving in Trieste are destined for Central Europe.
Praise, therefore, should be directed to the Grimaldi Group for having broken the monopoly that existed between the port of Trieste and the /Marmara commercial area. It is, in fact, appropriate to clarify that Alternative Roro had not been a competitor of DFDS for a long time, having been acquired by the latter. While Ulusoy only serves the Çeşme area, 600 km from Istanbul, and therefore cannot be considered a true competitor. In fact, this data alone is enough to demonstrate that before the arrival of the Grimaldi Group, a veritable monopoly by DFDS existed over Trieste.
This monopoly was consolidated not only horizontally with the acquisition of Alternative Roro (at a price much higher than market value), but also vertically, that is, by raising barriers to entry and acquiring leading Turkish companies in the logistics and transport sector, such as Ekol, at prices much higher than market value, implicitly eliminating the possibility for these companies to ship with the Grimaldi Group. These are clearly anti-competitive moves.
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Despite the increased deployment of ships on the Italy-Turkey lines, the market has only grown by +5%, which demonstrates that DFDS, despite having a terminal in Trieste and leaving half of the berths and quays empty in its own terminal, has not fully utilized its potential in order to create a boycott against the Grimaldi Group. DFDS has all the necessary space to operate in the Samer terminal in Trieste, but continues to send its ships to the PLT terminal to hinder the Grimaldi Group’s traffic, generating congestion and confusion with long lines of waiting trucks, which it unfoundedly attempts to blame on Grimaldi ships.
Despite this veritable barrage of fire, the Grimaldi Group has managed to capture about 45% of the /Marmara market in recent months, an area where DFDS had a monopoly. This is the real reason for the controversy.
The Grimaldi Group is not only offering the market the opportunity to ship at competitive rates thanks to its better ships equipped with the most advanced technologies, but is also helping to generate efficiencies and economies of scale for the entire sector and to reduce CO2 emissions.
Moreover, thanks to this capability, it will always be more efficient and competitive in terms of freight rates compared to its competitor, precisely thanks to the ECO-class ships, which consume half as much per unit transported.
The Grimaldi Group’s share of the Italy-Turkey market, which stood at 40% in 2024, the year the company’s services began, was previously handled by DFDS at its Trieste terminal. Today, engaging in unfair competition against the Neapolitan group by using the quays of the PLT terminal instead of its own, which are available, as well as boycotting in every way the authorizations it has requested in Turkey, is not the behavior expected from an important and established group like the Danish one. Which, moreover, in the first half of 2025 saw its result worsen by 90 million euros, recording a goodwill value of approximately 1.3 billion euros, which if subjected to an impairment by the end of the financial year, could convert into a potential loss of around 1 billion euros.
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