Thirty years of Grimaldi in the Port of Venice

The Grimaldi Group recently celebrated its first 30 years of operations in Venice, during which it has helped transform the lagoon port into a strategic hub for national and international maritime traffic.

It all began on 27 December 1994, when the ro-ro ship Akademic Tupolev first sailed from Venice, inaugurating a regular service for the transportation of cars and other rolling cargo to and from the ports of Alexandria (Egypt), Ashdod and Haifa (Israel). This was an immediate success, with strong demand for freight transport leading the Grimaldi Group to consider Venice a key port for its Mediterranean operations.

In the following years, the route was enhanced with the deployment of the car carriers Fides and Spes: the initially monthly service became weekly, solidifying the company’s presence in the port.

In 2015 there was a major innovation: Grimaldi introduced a new regular service for the transport of rolling freight between Venice, Bari, and Patras. The ro-ro ships Eurocargo Trieste and Eurocargo Patrasso were initially deployed on this Motorway of the Sea, and later replaced by Eurocargo Alexandria and Eurocargo Genova.

The most significant upgrade to this new service came in June 2023, when the Neapolitan group decided to deploy two cutting-edge Eco ships on the route, doubling capacity and significantly improving performance compared to the Eurocargo vessels.

Over the past decade, this major investment in maritime intermodality across the Adriatic has delivered record-breaking results. The weekly movement of trailers in the Port of Venice grew from 300 in 2015 to an impressive 1,900 in 2024. This growth has also generated significant environmental benefits: the Eco Italia and Eco Catania are capable of halving emissions per unit transported during navigation, eliminating them entirely while docked.

Thus, the Grimaldi Group continues to create value and sustainability not only for its freight transport customers but also for the communities surrounding all the ports served by its connections – and Venice is no exception.

 

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