In the first ten months of this year the port of Trieste has handled 47,479,335 of tons of goods, with a 4.3% growth over the same period in 2021 that originated in the first half of 2022 when volumes had increased by 13.2%, whereas-based on the traffic data processed by the Port Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea-it turns out that in the only period July to October this year, with cumulative 18,325,525 tonnes handled, was recorded a -7.7% percent decline on the corresponding period of 2021.

A decline, that of the last quarter, generated by a noticeable decrease in bulk volumes partially offset by the increase of 9.8% of miscellaneous goods. In the July-October period of 2022, in fact, the liquid bulk bulk, which constitute the main merceological entry handled by the Julian port, amounted to 11,846,806 tonnes, with a contraction of -14.5% over the same period last year. year. In reduction also the dry bulk with 141,548 tonnes (-36.9%). In the field of miscellaneous goods, container traffic measured in 20-foot containers stood at 303,592 teu, with a rise of 14.5% percent, and increasing, albeit limited, also resulted in the traffic of the rotables with 104,457 units transitioned (+ 1.2%).

Commenting on traffic data relating to the first ten months of 2022, the president of the AdSP of the Eastern Adriatic, Zeno D' Agostino, claimed that "the numbers speak clear." "The port is fundamental driver of growth and, not less, a formidable detector of global economic macro trends," D' Agostino said in the coming months, "D' Agostino added," what phenomena we will warn, if in short the recession. " actually will come. "

Signs that, not stopping to assess the traffic trend in the port of Trieste in the first ten months of 2022 but focusing attention on the most recent trend of activity, may already be present. Moreover, it is a negative development that has already been found in other Italian ports in recent months. In this regard, our newspaper, comparing itself with some Port System Authority executives, lamented the increasingly frequent tendency of port bodies to dilute the effects of a reduction in the volume of the traffic in certain periods, almost that the Port System Authorities were from companies for shares listed in a financial market worried about not communicating to investors information and data that could elicit the impulsive reactions of the market. The Port System Authority, as bodies of public law, has been established to meet general interest purposes, including perhaps even those of investors in companies whose port traffic has a significant impact, but beyond these a much larger category of stakeholders much more interested in getting to know the progress of port traffic at the moment, especially developments in the most recent activity. Of course, in the partial discord of this untimely trend in the communication of information by the managers of the port bodies, it must be remembered that today as today the selection of the heads of a Port System Authority, in the primis of the president, it looks much more like the appointment of a manager of a company than that of a public executive. The President of an AdSP, in Italy, is appointed by the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Understanding with the President or the Chairpersons of the Regions concerned and, above all, he is the Minister who at the uopo proceeds to acquire expressions of interest from those intending to run for the role of Chairman of a Port System Authority. He is the minister who chooses, at almost total discretion, "who yes and who does not", as is the case in a private company and as is also the case in the state administrations of several nations, which however do not seem to keep up with others. in terms of fairness and transparency.

So the AdSP of the Eastern Adriatic, suffering on the totality of the traffic data of the first ten months of 2022, just as a few days ago it had similarly made the AdSP of the Northern Adriatic referring to the data of the first nine months of this year of the port of Venice ( of the November 17 2022), detects "records and recovery ferments after the pandemic-generated stase" by qualifying "stable bulk liquids with 30,886,124 tonnes (+ 0.56%)" and underscoring the " strong growth sprint for solid bulk bulk, with 567,013 eventful tonnes (+ 22.85%) '.

The AdSP of the Eastern Adriatic also disclosed the data of the handling handled in the first ten months of 2022 from the port of Monfalcone, which stood at 2,994,441 tonnes (+ 5.7%), of which 2,402,320 tonnes of solid bulk (+ 12.4%) and 592,121 tons of miscellaneous goods (-14.9%).

Bruno Bellio