Italian ports handled almost 250 million tonnes of cargo in the first half of 2025, up 1.2% year on year, according to Assoporti and SRM (Assoporti–SRM).
Growth was driven by containers, which rose 2.6%, and solid bulk, up 18.9%, while liquid bulk declined 3.5% and Ro-Ro traffic fell 1%.
Passenger activity increased, with ports handling almost 30 million passengers, up 5.8%, and cruise passengers reaching 5.6 million, also up 5.8%.
On infrastructure and decarbonisation, the update reports progress on shore power, citing 25 cold-ironing connection points that are contracted and/or installed across Italian ports.
A special focus of the edition is intra-Mediterranean container traffic. In its “news from the world” section, the publication states that global seaborne trade in 2025 is expected to reach a record 12.8 billion tonnes and that the container sector is projected to grow 14% by 2029; it also says that, measured by container volumes handled by ports, the Mediterranean exceeded Northern Europe in 2024, with more than 82 million TEU versus 61 million.
Within the intra-Mediterranean analysis, the release says EU-country short-sea traffic in the Mediterranean totals almost 630 million tonnes and identifies Tanger Med, Valencia and Port Said as the top three Mediterranean-area container ports, all showing growth in the first half of 2025.
The top five carriers by intra-Mediterranean fleet capacity account for 66.6% of total capacity.
Assoporti is the Association of Italian Ports, representing Italy’s port system authorities and serving as an institutional body for coordination.