The Competition and Market Authority (AGCM) has authorised the recruitment of the control of the terminalist company Trieste Marine Terminal (TMT), which operates the container terminal at Molo VII of the port of Trieste, by the group armorial Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) ( of the November 21 2022). In particular, the Italian antitrust authority authorized CSM Italia-Gate, which is part of the group of companies controlled by the Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), in turn controlled jointly by MSC and the Global Infrastructure Fund Partners, to take sole control of TMT through the sale to CSM Italia-Gate of a share equal to 30% of the TMT capital currently held by T.O. Delta, thus increasing to 80% its share of share capital of TMT, while the remaining 20% will remain in the hands of T.O. Delta.

Among the considerations of the AGCM on the effects of the transaction, according to the antitrust, " the transaction under review does not result in significant horizontal overlaps in the market for container terminal services aimed at deep-sea container ships for hinterland traffic in the High Adriatic. In this context, in fact, the MSC group is present only with a non-controlling stake in the minority partner of the company that operates the container terminal in Ravenna. Even by attributing to the MSC group the entire traffic of the Ravenna container terminal (to which it appears possible to attribute a market share of approximately 7%), the post-concentration share of the MSC group would, in fact, be less than 35% of the market and equivalent to that of the Koper terminal, its direct competitor. It should also be recalled that the substitutability between the port of Ravenna and that of Trieste is limited by the different depths of the grounds and the diversity of equipment ; the control of container terminals of both ports will therefore not translate into a significant weakening of the mutual competitive constraints. By narrowing, instead, the scope of assessment to the set of competitors able to exert a significant competitive constraint on TMT (the Koper and Rijeka terminals), the MSC Group will hold a share equal to approximately one third of this market plus restricted, both in terms of volumes and of handling capacity. Furthermore, it is noted that Koper and Rijeka's competing terminals have significant spare capacity (equal to about 25% percent of that available) and that new capacity is under way. provision of container terminal services to deep-sea vessels. By 2025 it is, in fact, expected to complete the expansion of the container terminal in Rijeka, which more than doubles its container handling capacity and will become able to serve deep-sea container ships of tonnage superior to the maximum welcoming from the TMT, also developing its own railway connections with Central Europe. In addition, in the same port as Trieste (Pier VIII), it started operating in 2021 multipurpose terminal called Tri Este Logistics Platform, which lends its services to container ships as well ; the terminal is operated by HHLA Plt Italy, a company controlled by the German HHLA Group, which specializes in the management of container terminals, and participated by various Italian logistics operators ; the Trieste Logistics Platform has quickly developed its own traffic and the concession provides, within the framework of the Trieste Port Development Plan pursued by the local Port Authority, the creation on Molo VIII of a new container terminal, equipped with equipment and features that make it competitive with that object of the this operation ".

For the AGCM, therefore, " the acquisition of TMT therefore does not appear able to significantly restrict competition in the market for container terminal services aimed at deep-sea container ships, due to the presence of important competitors and the entry of new terminalistical capacity, capable of exerting a significant competitive constraint on the MSC Group. " In addition, according to the antitrust, " should a broader geographic extension market, including the ports of Upper Tirreno, be considered, there would be a horizontal overlap with the TIL Group's activities in the port of Genoa. This overlap, while allowing the TIL Group more than doubling its market share (bringing it to [ 10-15 ]% approx.), does not appear likely to significantly reduce the competitive constraints that the TIL Group and the group are subject to. MSC. Such constraints could in fact increase in the near future, for the reasons recalled earlier. "

With respect to the vertical effects of the acquisition, noting that the operation appears "capable of determining effects of vertical nature due to the integration between the MSC group and the terminalistics company", the AGCM noted that, " as to the effects of the operation on the market of the liner shipping service to half a container, takes prominence on the possibility for competitors to turn to the ports of Koper and Rijeka, which already has capacity in excess capacity and whose capacity is either in the process of expansion, or at the new container terminal of Pier VIII of the port of Trieste, which is already operational and in development. This possibility appears to be suitable to avert the risk of any excludedness by the MSC group. To this is added that national and local regulation provides for non-discrimination obligations (the AGCM refers to the 57/2018 deliberation with which the Transportation Regulator has reiterated the obligation, for holders of relevant concessions to port terminals, to ensure equitable and non-discriminatory access to the port infrastructure, ndr ). On the basis of these elements, it is not considered that the transaction could produce significant vertical effects at the disadvantage of the MSC competitors in the shipping of goods line of goods through shipping containers. "

In addition, when it concerns the area of container handling by land from / for ports, according to the AGCM, " the concentration under consideration does not appear in itself liable to benefit the MSC Group's undertakings in the provision of transport services container from / for the acquired terminal ".

For the AGCM, even "vertical integration with tugboat service in the port of Trieste does not appear likely to generate significant anticompetitive effects, expected that local regulation constitutes a limit to the capacity of the group." MSC to put in place excludes. In fact, the tugboat service (entrusted in concession) is regulated by the Port Authority, which sets prices and dictates the settlement to which the dealer must adhere to and in particular the order under which it must meet the demands receipts ". The antitrust watchdog has also been in the process of acquiring the exclusive control of Mediterranean Tugboats by SAS Shipping Agencies Services of the MSC Group. ( of the October 24 2022).

With regard to the horizontal effects of this second operation, the antitrust case has found that if Mediterranean tugboats lends port towing service in the ports of Genoa, Salerno, Augusta, Catania, Messina, Milazzo, Pozzallo, Siracusa, Ravenna, Ortona-Vast-Pescara, Termoli, Ancona and Trieste, activities that in 2021 accounted for more than 40% of the value of sales and the number of towing services carried out in Italy, the MSC group has a marginal presence in the market of the port trailer in Italy, where it was present in the sole port of Gioia Tauro by the subsidiary Con.Tug, whose revenues in 2021 accounted for less than 5% of the total Italian market of towing services. Observing that in the other Italian ports the port trailer service is offered by a plurality of operators, the AGCM has determined that " the operation will not give rise to any horizontal overlap and will be resolved in the replacement of a operator with another in the ports where Mediterranean tugboats currently offer the port trailer service "and that" the operation therefore does not appear to be suitable for raising concerns of a competitive nature on the market for the towing service port ". For the AGCM, moreover, the operation does not appear to be liable even "to produce vertical effects capable of significantly impeding effective competition".

The Competition Authority and Market Authority has therefore concluded that the two operations do not appear suitable to significantly impede effective competition in the markets concerned and to determine the establishment or strengthening of a dominant position.