The shipping platform

Location: Taranto is situated on the Mare Grande, a sheltered bay at the northern end of the Gulf of Taranto, in southern Italy. General overview: The port offers facilities for handling containers, general and bulk cargo, wet and dry, as well as most marine services and repairs. The port consists of an outer harbour, Mar Grande and an inner harbour, Mar Piccolo, connected by a narrow canal, "Canale Navigabile", and two piers outside the harbours on the NW side called West Port. The Italian Navy base and submarine station are located in the Inner Harbour. Visiting yachts and pleasure craft vessels normally berth in the Porto Mercantile in the outer harbour, the Mar Grande, or at one of several boatyards around the shores of the Mar Grande. The port has three entrances, two of which are operational. Its management is entrusted to the Port Authority, which is based within the port. The port area covers 3,250,000 square meters and overall length of the quays is 9,995 meters. ● The Container Terminal: Taranto's Container Terminal was opened in 2001. It's annual handling capacity is over 2,000,000 TEUs. On the West side of the terminal, there are first-rate facilities for loading and unloading of container trains, through five sidings, directly linked with the national rail network. The terminal facilities currently cover a total of 110 hectares with 25 hectares of yard space. There are 7,062 ground slots for containers with a total capacity of 35,310 TEUs. Stacking capacity for empty containers is 45,000 TEUs and 900 reefer plugs are also available for refrigerated containers. ● ILVA S.p.A. Steel Terminal Steelworks Terminal is operated by ILVA S.p.A. and has a consession of 4 piers (Piers 2, 3, 4 and 5) and one quay (quay 3) providing a total of 4,589 m of wharfage with up to 25 m draught and 931,000 sqm of operatig areas. These facilities are used for discharging raw materials such as coal and iron ore and for loading and discharging finished and semi-finished products including billets, coils, pipes, sheets and slabs. ● Oil Terminal ENI S.p.A. operates a 560 m jetty with 1,120 metres of berthage for loading and discharging crude oil, refined products and by-products. Transshipment is by a conveyor system linking jetty with the refinery. The ENI refinery is supplied wit hraw materials by tankers of up to 300,000 dwt accomodated at single-buoy moorings in the Mar Grande. An underwater pipeline takes crude oil directly from tanker to refinery. In average ear it handles between 5,000,000 - 5,500,000 tones. ● Cement Terminal Cementi Italia S.r.l. has a concession to load and discharge cement on a 167 metre section of Pier 4 (E side). The berth is linked to the nearby cement works by a mobile bridge and conveyor system capable of handling either 2,400 bags or 400 tonnes of clinker per hour. ● Commerical Berths Quay , Pier 1 east side, Pier 1 seaward end, Pier 1 west side and Quay 2are common users facilities for handling bulk cargo and miscellaneous goods. Goods handled at these berths include aluminium, clinker, cement, aluminium coils, fertilizers, frozen fish, general cargo, iron ore, machinery and metal frames. An important movement of wind turbines and blades is also registered. Traffic figures: Approx 4,130 vessels, 40,800,000t of cargo, 600,000TEU and 180 passengers handled annually. Load line zone: Summer. Max size: -AGIP Sealine Oil Terminal: LOA 325m, draught 22.0m, 300,000DWT. -ILVA Pier No 4: LOA 412m, beam 53m, draught 25.0m, 400,000DWT, airdraught 18.85m.