Port of Livorno

Port of Livorno

Harbour
Location
Country Italy
Location Livorno
Details
Owned by Port Authority of Livorno
Type of harbor Natural/Artificial
Size of harbor 160 ha (1.6 sq km)
Land area 25 ha (0.25 sq km)
Size 185 ha (1.85 sq km)
Available berths 29
Wharfs 50
Employees 15,000[1] (2007)
President Giuliano Gallantii
Statistics
Vessel arrivals 7,173 (2011)[2]
Annual cargo tonnage 29.6 million tonnes (2011)[3]
Annual container volume 637,798 TEU (2011)[4]
Passenger traffic 2.0 million people (2011)
Annual revenue US$ 1.1 billion (2007)[5]
Website
www.porto.livorno.it

The Port of Livorno is one of the largest Italian seaports and one of the largest seaports in the Mediterranean Sea, with an annual traffic capacity of around 30 million tonnes of cargo and 600,000 TEU's.

The port is also an important employer in the area, with more than 15,000 employees who provide services to more than 7,000 ships every year.

Description

The Port of Livorno is situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the north-western part of Tuscany. The harbour is divided in Porto Vecchio (Old Port) and Porto Nuovo (New Port) and is composed of four main basins.

Avamporto

The Avamporto is a vast area outside the harbour bounded to the south by the Diga della Vegliaia, to the west by the Diga Curvilinea and to the east by the outer side of Molo Mediceo.

Porto Vecchio

Porto Vecchio (Old Port) occupies the southern part of the harbour and comprises: Porto Mediceo (Medicean Port), Darsena Vecchia (Old Dock), Darsena Nuova (New Dock), Bacino Cappellini (Cappellini Dock) and Bacino Firenze (Firenze Dock).

Bacino Santo Stefano

Bacino Santo Stefano (St. Stephen basin) is bordered to the north by the Diga del Marzocco (Marzocco breakwater), to the west by the Diga della Meloria (Meloria breakwater) built in 1900, which is the straight extension of 550 meters of the Diga Curvilinea, the Alto Fondale dock, the Darsena Petroli (Oils Dock), the Darsena dei Calafati (Caulker Dock) and the first part of the waterway that bring to the Porto Industriale.

Porto Nuovo

Porto Nuovo (New Port) is situated in the northern sector of the harbour and correspond to the Porto Industriale which enclose: the Darsena Toscana (Tuscany dock), the Darsena Inghirami (Inghirami dock), the Darsena Ugione (Ugione dock), the Canale Industriale (Industrial canal) and the Canale dei Navicelli.[6]

The Port of Livorno is considered a major Italian port along the Tyrrhenian Sea Corridor, capable of handling all kinds of vessels (LoLo, RoRo, liquid bulk, dry bulk, cruise ships, ferryboats). The port mainly serves Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche regions of Italy.

History

Porto Mediceo

Porto Mediceo is a fortified quadrangular perimeter once open towards north and is the oldest part of Port of Livorno. It was ordered by Cosimo I who called Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1572[7] for the project, but the construction was realized after his grand ducky. In the following years Claudio Cogorano, Antonio Cantagallina and Robert Dudley contributed to the project. The project involved the construction of wharfs with defensive walls to connect Fortezza Vecchia (Old Fortress) with the Fanale dei Pisani (Light of the Pisans).[8]

The first wharf has a whole length of 348 meters and was built under Ferdinando I, it is called Molo Ferdinando or Andana degli Anelli. The word Andana had at that time the meaning of vessels moored parallel to a wharf. Molo Ferdinando start from the inlet opening to the Vecchia Darsena (Old Dock), near the Fortezza Vecchia, until to the second wharf perpendicular to it. This wharf is called Molo Cosimo or Andana delle Ancore for the reason that was built under Cosimo II. It has a length of 240 meters and finish before to reach the Fanale dei Pisani for the reason that the Sassaia reef blocked the construction. In this place was built a block-house called Fortino della Sassaia (Sassaia Fortress).

The third wharf is the perpendicular extension of the Molo Cosimo built from the Sassaia reef towards north-west, parallel to the coast line, in order to give a repair to the harbour, it is called Molo Mediceo (Medicean wharf) or Molo del Forte (Fortress wharf). It has a length of 470 meters and a width of 250 meters and has at its extremity a fortress, called Fortezza del Molo (Wharf Fortress), once equipped with 27 guns and 200 soldiers [9] in order to defend the port entrance and to maintain the harbour neutrality. It is evident that Porto Mediceo has had at that time an important military and strategic considerations in addition to those of commercial nature as it could accommodate 140 vessels.

Diga della Vegliaia

The Diga della Vegliaia was built on the place called Vegliaia where there were cliffs. The breakwater has the aim to protect the southern entrance of the port by the prevailing winds. It was built from 1888 to 1900, has a rectilinear structure, a length of 480 meters and the direction of 105° - 285°.

Diga Curvilinea

The last Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II ordered in 1852 the construction of the Diga Curvilinea (Curvilinear), called Molo Novo from the inhabitants, which delimits to the west the Avamporto. It is a massive construction, built on project by Victor Poirel, formed by a substructure made of artificial rocks while the upper part is surmounted by a wall that protects the Avamporto. The Diga Curvilinea was completed in 1863, it is situated at 800 meters from the harbour and 400 meters from the Fanale dei Pisani, has a length of 1,150 meters with a cord of 1,000 meters and an average width of 8.50 meters. [10] [11]

Statistics

In 2007 the Port of Livorno handled 32,934,594 tonnes of cargo and 745,557 TEU's, making it one of the busiest cargo ports in Italy and one of the largest container ports in the country.[12]

General statistics between 2001 - 2007[13]
Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
RoRo* 6,143,084 7,127,138 7,715,140 7,988,808 9,023,158 9,735,170 12,250,098
Liquid bulk* 9,499,913 9,243,308 8,455,074 8,156,069 8,626,687 8,508,475 9,037,492
Dry bulk* 1,314,121 1,395,843 1,403,809 1,336,217 1,185,848 1,186,571 1,169,737
Break bulk* 2,705,853 2,390,834 2,512,755 2,700,010 2,565,106 2,742,083 3,138,598
Nr of passengers ? 1,677,484 1,803,237 1,991,513 2,050,994 2,308,684 2,282,440
Containers (TEU's) 531,814 546,882 592,778 638,586 658,506 657,592 745,557
Containers* 5,001,982 5,171,249 5,640,076 6,870,035 6,809,953 6,458,267 7,338,669
Total*' 24,664,953 25,328,372 25,726,854 27,051,139 28,210,752 28,630,566 32,934,594
* figures in tonnes

Terminals

Frozen food terminal

The terminal has an area of 18,009 m2, a storage capacity of 35,000 m2, and an annual traffic capacity of around 200,000 tonnes.[14]

Copper and non-ferrous metals

The copper and non-ferrous metals terminal has a storage capacity of 95,821 m2 and a quay length of 500 m.[15][16]

Cereals

The cereal terminals have an area of 63,000 m2, a quay length of 336 m and a storage capacity of 115,560 tonnes.[17][18]

Automobile terminal

The Port of Livorno has one RoRo terminal with a total length of 1,741 m, a land area of 477,060 m2, storage capacity of 6,000 cars and a transshipment capacity of 1,200,000 units per year.[19][20][21][22]

Container

The container terminal has an area of 658,000 m2, a quay length of 1,550 m and an annual traffic capacity of 2,000,000 TEU's.[23][24][25]

Break - bulk

The break bulk cargo terminal is specialised in handling timber, non - ferrous metals, cellulose, paper, sand, clay, coal, bentonite and metal products. The terminal has an area of 181,567 m2, a storage area of 71,221 m2 and a storage capacity of 160,000 m3.[26][27][28]

Multi use terminal

The terminal has a storage are of 25,000 m2 and a quay length of 96 m.[29]

Liquefied natural gas

The Port of Livorno has a LNG terminal with a capacity of four billion m3 owned by Endesa and Amga opened in 2007 after an investment of US$ 560 million.[30]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Port of Livorno.

Coordinates: 43°33′44″N 10°17′42″E / 43.56222°N 10.29500°E