MILAN, Jan. 9 (Class Editori) - "The desire is to no longer be considered a China-centric company but a global company. In short, a European company, which manages European scheduled services". With these words Marco Donati, general manager of Cosco Shipping Lines Italy, explains the establishment of Diamond Line Gmbh.
The latter is a newly created European shipping company, based in Hamburg, to which the intra-European maritime transport activity carried out by Cosco Shipping Lines Europe Gmbh has been transferred. Diamond Line is the commercial brand with which it will operate, starting officially on January 15th.
Marco Donati explains that for Italy "there is no change at the local level, the choice is to strengthen our business on all intra-European lines to become leaders in this sector too. We are certainly the company that has grown the most in this market".
"In Italy no change, we already have a group of people dedicated to these services both in Genoa, in Naples and in Milan. A group of professionals focused on the intra-Med and intra-Europe markets. Italy, Turkey and Germany are the cornerstones of Diamond Line," said the manager.
It is the second significant move by the Chinese shipping giant in the past month. On December 12, 2019, in Vado Ligure, Savona, was inaugurated the Vado Gateway, the new container terminal, 50.1% owned by Apm Terminals, 40% by the Chinese Cosco Shipping Ports and 9.9% by Qingdao Port International.
Vado Gateway is the most modern port infrastructure built in Italy for at least a couple of decades and completes a total investment of around 450 million euros, 180 million of which by Apm Terminals and 43 in project financing. The work was commissioned by the Port System Authority of the Western Ligurian Sea, which has now entrusted its management to APM for the next 50 years.
The concrete start of the activity will take place by February, initially on a first part of the 450-meter quay, but as early as next July all the 700 meters that make up the infrastructure can be exploited. With its 17.25-meter backdrops near the quay and 4.5-meter height above sea level, Vado Gateway will be able to welcome and operate without limitations even the great last generation container ships if and when they arrive in the North Tyrrhenian Sea.
The Vado Gateway will connect the markets of Northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany and north-eastern France with the rest of the world. There are two shipping lines of Maersk Line, a shipping company that is part of the Ap Moller Maersk group as well as Apm Terminal, which will arrive in Vado Ligure as early as February 2020: the first is the ME2 service, which connects the Mediterranean with the Middle East and India, and the second is the MMX service, which connects the Mediterranean with Canada. The two regular lines have so far climbed the Genoa Sech terminal and the La Spezia LSCt respectively.
The full Vado Gateway capacity will be around 900,000 TEUs a year, which together with the 250,000 of the nearby (and controlled) Reefer Terminal will make the terminal a port capable of exceeding a million TEUs in total per year. There will be around 390 employees, 240 of which at Vado Gateway and 150 at Reefer Terminal. At the end of 2020, when terminal will be completely built, the number of people employed will increase to around 300.
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