Sardinia, production in crisis due to high transport costs: Confindustria and Confapi call for regional intervention

"From June, goods travelling by sea will have to reckon with an increase in transport costs that will exceed 44%. The high cost of transport is putting industrial production and employment in Sardinia in crisis. From June, goods travelling by sea will have to reckon with an increase in transport costs that will exceed 44%. The alarm has been raised, calling for urgent intervention by the Region 'to provide a solution to the unstoppable increase in the cost borne by companies for transporting goods'.

Between Ets and and Conflict in the Middle East

"In addition to the already reported negative impacts that the European Maritime Ets Directive is having on the island's businesses,' the two organisations write, 'in recent weeks the increase in fuel costs resulting from the conflict in the Middle East is making the unequal and unsustainable condition suffered by the regional economic system even more evident.

The starting point is the fact that all goods and products travelling by sea to and from Sardinia 'have by now consolidated a higher transport cost that, as of June, will exceed 44%'. "This additional cost, increased by high fuel prices and the forthcoming entry into force of ETS2," they write, "is reverberating on carriers, businesses and, inevitably, the end consumer with devastating inflationary effects for the island's economy.

As a result, the island's companies risk losing competitiveness in a system that is becoming irreversible. "For more than a year now, the trade associations have been pointing out that strategic sectors for Sardinia, such as manufacturing, stone, agri-food, logistics, and transport, have been operating in conditions of inconceivable difficulty compared to other Italian and European regions that have already set up support and compensation instruments for their companies,' they add.