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SUCCESS FOR GIOIA TAURO
Rome - (Adnkronos Multimedia) - Thirty years of difficult and troubled history. Gioia Tauro had to be the main centre for industrial development in the south of Italy, but the crisis which took place during the Seventies made the construction of one of the largest steel works in Italy impossible. Then it was the turn of the energy project, but the great electrical energy power station was never built, due to environmental problems. The port still remained a large and very modern port, but was not able to serve the steelworks which had never materialised, nor was it able to unload the coal for the power station that had never been built. But it was still able to become the largest container port in the Mediterranean, and this is exactly what took place.
Today, with more than 3 million containers handled every ear, the port of Gioia Tauro represents a strategic logistics platform for the entire Mediterranean basin.
Situated along the route connecting Suez to Gibraltar, one of the busiest maritime corridors in the world, the Calabrian port has thus become a leader in the handling of TEUS (Twenty-foot equivalent units) The growth of traffic over just a few years has been exceptional, rising from 17,000 TEUS (with docking facilities for 50 ships) in 1995 to more than 2.6 million TEUS (with 3,060 ships) in 2003. Then, thanks to a conversion to transhipment (the transhipment of goods from ocean-going ships to Mediterranean vessels) more than one thousand jobs were created.
Following further improvements, amounting to more than 270 million euro, Gioia Tauro is expected to grow even more. Future work will involve the enlargement of the basin allowing for the entrance and exit of ships to take place simultaneously, as well as work on the southern entrance and dredging which will take place to a depth of 18 metres. Included in the re-modernisation plans there will also be a provision to lengthen the wharves, which at the end of 2005 will be increased from the present 4 kilometres to more than 5 kilometres
The maritime port, which covers more than 600 hectares, of which 100 are taken over by the duty free zone, and has more than 3 kilometres of wharves, is being organised to receive ships with large carrying capacities for 10.000 TEUS and is today connected weekly with more than 70 Mediterranean ports. This makes it the leading and largest docking for shipping companies managing the connections with all of the continents: South America, Australia, the United States and Asia. Connected to the national railway network, by the Naples-Reggio Calabria route, Gioia Tauro also has a railway terminal with six rail-tracks, allowing for the loading of six trains at a time, thus handling a high volume of commercial trade. With regard to the road system, a new connection is now being built between the port and the Salerno-Reggio-Calabria motorway - which in its turn is undergoing a complete overhaul - so as to ease the traffic going and coming from the port. In addition, thanks to funding obtained from the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport amounting to nine million euro, it will soon be possible to carry out a new and more efficient safety system.
However, the re-launching phase for Gioia Tauro does not only concern the port facilities and the safety arrangements, there is also another important project being undertaken and this concerns the construction of a terminal for the re-gassification of liquified natural gas (GNL) around which will emerge a system for productive initiatives to exploit the refrigeration which will become available following the re-gassification process.
Resulting from this plant it is in fact foreseen to carry out a specialised platform, with adequate facilities and locally linked, aimed at encouraging the setting up of manufacturing and logistics firms connected with refrigerated goods. The exceptional nature of the proposals lies in the competitive advantage to be gained by investors, who will be able to use facilities already adapted to future technologies with a cost of energy supply much lower than the European average.
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