Owner of Cagliari International Container Terminal cuts its losses after declining volumes for several years and now the loss of the Sardinian transhipment hub’s last regular customer.
Contship Italia, the Italian terminal operating division of Germany’s Eurogate, has confirmed it is to close its Cagliari International Container Terminal following the loss of the Sardinian transhipment hub’s last regular customer, Hapag-Lloyd.
Chief executive Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello told Lloyd’s List: “Since volume began to reduce in CICT at the end of 2017, no efforts have been spared to search for volume, other businesses, other customers. From February 2019, the company CICT has been evaluating different scenarios, none of which have given encouraging results,” and after major customer Hapag-Lloyd opted “for other hub concepts”, management was forced “to confront reality and act”.
Sardinia, with its population of only 1.7m and no significant local cargo, is only a viable location as a transhipment terminal, but its proximity to many growing transhipment hubs in the Mediterranean has made it difficult to compete. Volumes at CICT have been falling dramatically during the past few years, from 671,176 teu in 2016 to just 214,639 last year, falling further in the first four months of this year to only 44,142 teu.
Source: Lloyd’s
