Hormuz effect on Italian ports, containers drop by 4.6%

A 4.6% drop in container handling in Italian ports for the first quarter of 2026. This is according to new data released by the Study Centre of Fedespedi, the National Federation of International Forwarding Companies, at its annual public assembly, held this year in Genoa to mark the association's 80th anniversary.

The long wave of the conflict in Iran, with the Hormuz crisis, it was pointed out during the shippers' meeting, is also beginning to reach Italia. Analyses by the study centre, in fact, highlight the first effects of international tensions on the flow of goods to the Belpaese and outline the possible development of new trade routes. In the first quarter of 2026, the movement of containers in Italian ports recorded a drop of 4.6% compared to the same period in 2025. The slowdown, reads the Fedespedi report, is concentrated in particular on the Adriatic side, where the contraction of Trieste (-23.6%) stands out, and also affects some Tyrrhenian ports of call, from Savona (-14.1%) to Genoa (-4.9%). The port of Naples also recorded a slight drop (-3.5%).

Against this trend, the Lsct terminal of La Spezia (+7.8%), Salerno (+7.8%) and Venice (+5.8%) grew, while Ravenna remained substantially stable (+0.1%). Italy's figures, the study centre points out, are moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the Mediterranean basin: the area's main non-Italian ports have, in fact, handled a total of 8.7 million teu (20-foot containers), with an increase of 7.1%, driven by the performance of ports such as Suez Canal Container Terminal (in Port Said), Rijeka and Mersin (in Turkey). "The contraction in container volumes appears, therefore, to be a phenomenon specific to Italy's port system," the report argues, "despite a context in which Italia's exports continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace (+1.3% in the first quarter, compared to +3.3% in 2025).

If we analyse the data, however, also taking into account the type of container traffic of the ports, points out Allesandro Pitto, president of Fedespedi, 'we realise that, if we exclude the transhipment ports and those of Turkey, all the Mediterranean gateway ports are suffering, although Spain is doing a little better than Italia. In short, the data show the effects of geopolitical tensions on global traffic, but also the resilience of a sector accustomed to operating in constantly changing contexts'.

The case of Trieste deserves special attention, according to Fedespedi's research office. On the container front, the Julian port "is suffering from the reorganisation of alliances between shipping companies, which has redesigned routes and reduced transit volumes. On the ro-ro traffic front, however, the port is registering an opposite sign: in the first quarter of 2026 ro-ro traffic (ships for the transport of rolling stock, ed.) from Turkey grew by 6.4%'.