Agenzia Marittima Le Navi was established in 1974 to represent the historic routes dedicated to the Maghreb area but started representing MSC already in 1975. Currently, it has 16 offices in Italy with over 500 employees.
MSC was founded in Geneva in 1970 by Gianluigi Aponte. It has since become a global leader in the container and reefer transport sectors.
Global coverage
"Thanks to MSC routes, Agenzia Marittima Le Navi connects all trading centres worldwide on a weekly basis, shifting goods from the place of production to the place of consumption, wherever they might be," explains Vincenzo Tomassetti, Reefer Manager for Le Navi Spa.
Vincenzo Tomassetti, Reefer Manager for Le Navi Spa.
MSC has 480 offices in 150 different countries, a staff of approximately 60,000 people and a fleet of 460 ships covering over 200 routes and over 300 ports. In particular, in 2016, MSC handled 1,250,000 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) of mainly perishable goods such as vegetables and fresh fruit.
"The technology available has improved over the years but what we consider just as important is the fact that Agenzia Marittima Le Navi and all MSC partners provide the professionalism necessary to handle fresh and frozen products without risk. We are constantly in contact with our clients, so we can customise our service to meet their demands."
Cold chain and sea transport
MSC container systems can safeguard the cold chain enabling door to door transport at a controlled temperature. New technologies and a better organisation of sea transport opened new markets, as they enabled the reaching of overseas destinations that could not be reached by road or rail and that would be too expensive to reach by air. In addition, the fact that the cold chain can be safeguarded made transport by sea preferable.
Cold chain and sea transport
MSC container systems can safeguard the cold chain enabling door to door transport at a controlled temperature. New technologies and a better organisation of sea transport opened new markets, as they enabled the reaching of overseas destinations that could not be reached by road or rail and that would be too expensive to reach by air. In addition, the fact that the cold chain can be safeguarded made transport by sea preferable.
"In the Mediterranean basin, container transports guarantee a lower environmental impact and increased safety with a capacity that road-ferry systems cannot support due to the lack of equipment or customs problems."
Average transport times vary between 10 days (Mediterranean basin) and 4-5 weeks (overseas destinations), so the feasibility of fresh produce transports is strictly related to ripening and the location of destination markets. Reefers equipped with controlled atmosphere technology can extend the shelf-life of some products, thus enabling transport overseas of fruit such as peaches and nectarines."
"Sea transport has lower CO2 emissions than other modes of transport. If you can handle one ton per horsepower by road and 10 tons per horsepower by rail, 100 tons are handled per horsepower by sea."
Italian ports
The Italian ports mostly used for reefers are Gioia Tauro (also a hub for the entire Mediterranean basin), Civitavecchia, Livorno and Genoa for the Tyrrhenian area. In the Adriatic sea, there is Venice for exports and Trieste/Ravenna for imports.
"Sea transport has lower CO2 emissions than other modes of transport. If you can handle one ton per horsepower by road and 10 tons per horsepower by rail, 100 tons are handled per horsepower by sea."
Italian ports
The Italian ports mostly used for reefers are Gioia Tauro (also a hub for the entire Mediterranean basin), Civitavecchia, Livorno and Genoa for the Tyrrhenian area. In the Adriatic sea, there is Venice for exports and Trieste/Ravenna for imports.
At the moment, there are no leading Sicilian ports for fresh produce transport. The only exception is Catania, which lately has been used for tropical fruit imports (bananas and pineapples).
Export - Import, main trades and Far East
"The main exported Italian products - depending on shelf-life and transit time - are kiwis, apples, grapes, pears and plums. The main destination markets are North and South America, eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa, although volumes shipped to Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia saw a 50% drop in 2016/17."
Export - Import, main trades and Far East
"The main exported Italian products - depending on shelf-life and transit time - are kiwis, apples, grapes, pears and plums. The main destination markets are North and South America, eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa, although volumes shipped to Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia saw a 50% drop in 2016/17."
For MSC, these markets represent 70% of the exported flows.
As regards imports, bananas and pineapples represent over 40% of the market and the main countries of origin are South and Central America followed by western Africa."
In the Middle East, China has continued to grow despite the global crisis.
"The Chinese market and the Far East in general mean very little for Italian imports. As regards exports, the only Italian product allowed in China were kiwis. Recently, however, a new protocol was signed for citrus fruit. The product that could truly be successful in China is apples. The protocol is not ready so, at the moment, we are still behind countries such as Poland and Spain (for citrus fruit)."
Together with MSC, Agenzia Marittima Le Navi handled around 35% of fresh produce reefer sea transports in 2016.
Contacts:
Agenzia Marittima Le Navi Spa
Via Balleydier, 7n
16149 Genova - Italy
Tel.: +39 010 6472 540
Fax: +39 010 0896 540
Cell.: +39 348 1303422
Email: vincenzo.tomassetti@msclenavi.it
Web1: www.msc.com
Web2: www.msc.com/ita/our-services/reefer-cargo