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DUTCH
shipping consultancy Dynamar forecasts the
2015 intra-Mediterranean container volumes
will increase 4.6 per cent year on year
to 15.6 million TEU, and then rise 9.6 per
cent to 17.1 million TEU by 2017.
Intra-Mediterranean (2014) Container
Trades involve 170 services operated by
40 different shipping companies deploying
275 ships in the 400 to 3,000-TEU range.
Through nearly 100 ports in 24 countries,
ships and the ports serve 700 million people
in frequencies of between twice and many
times per month, carrying an average of
275,000 laden TEU.
In terms of connectivity, the Aegean
tops the Med sub trades with 275 trade connections;
the Black Sea is at the bottom with just
71, said the new third edition Dynamar report.
"With respect to individual port
connectivity, Piraeus is at the top with
54 connections, but Alexandria is on its
heels with 53," the report said.
Transshipment ports, to be worthy of
the same, says Dynamar must have transshipment
volumes that are at least 50 per cent of
throughput.
So they included the ports of Italy's
Gioia Tauro and Tangier-Med Port - both
with 95 per cent transshipments - though
Algeciras, while not in the 50 per cent
or above bracket, has the highest transshipment
volume at nearly four million TEU, ahead
of Port Said's 3.8 million TEU.
The Mediterranean trade is divided in
two - West-Med and East-Med. The West Med
divided in two: Western Europe and Maghreb
North Africa.
The East Med encompasses the Adriatic,
Aegean (Greece and Turkey), Black Sea and
Levant (Turkey East Med through to Egypt)
sub trades, said the report.
"The number of services and their
annual capacity operating to, from, between
and within each of those sub-trade areas
varies greatly," said Dynamar.
Spain handles the largest number of containers
(import and export, full and empty, including
transshipment) at more than 11 million TEU
in 2013. Croatia is the smallest country
in this respect with just 132,000 TEU.
Eight global terminal operators are involved
in 30 Mediterranean box facilities, also
handling intra-Med trade. With eight terminals,
including projects, APM Terminals is the
largest, followed by DP World with six and
MSC-subsidiary TIL (Terminal Investment
Limited), with five.
Intra-Mediterranean shipping services
calling ports in the European sector of
the West Mediterranean provide an annual
trade capacity of 2.7 million TEU.
The Adriatic, currently one of the smallest
trade areas, is considered to offer a large
potential for growth of intra-Mediterranean
shipping volumes.
It will not come as a surprise that the
Aegean, comprising the waters between Greece
and Turkey, is the second largest intra-Mediterranean
trade area, providing a capacity of 2.45
million TEU.
In terms of intra-Mediterranean connectivity,
the Aegean sub-trade area is first with
275 trade connections, that it the most
weekly sailings). The Black Sea is at the
bottom of this ranking with just 71 sailing.
The Bosporus, connecting the East Med
with the Black Sea and flowing through Istanbul
city-centre, has a maximum vessel length
restriction of 300 metres. The largest ship
passing through this natural waterway is
a 9,400 TEU CMA CGM newbuilding with a length-over-all
of 299.95 metres.
Israel (2,539,000 TEU) and Lebanon (1,117,000
TEU) are both among the Mediterranean throughput
country millionaires.
With 34 calls per week at eight of its
ports, Algeria is the largest Maghreb country
in terms of connectivity with other Mediterranean
countries.
Despite the country risk in the Levant,
with nearly 2.3 million TEU capacity Turkey/East
Med, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and
Egypt still form the third largest intra-Mediterranean
sub-trade area.
It is also connected with all other sub-trade
regions. This is not in the last place due
to Egypt with its major transshipment centre
of Port Said (4.1 million TEU), gateway
Alexandria (1.5 million TEU) and hybrid
Damietta, together accounting for 6.3 million
TEU as a country.
MSC is the largest intra-Mediterranean
carrier by annualised one-way capacity (1.5
million TEU), ahead of CMA CGM (900,000
TEU). It also operates the longest intra-Med
service, connecting four trade areas during
a 4,900 nautical miles roundtrip, said Dynamar.
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