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In this paper, an analysis of the development of Deep Sea Shipping (DSS) and Short Sea Shipping (SSS) container routes calling at Italian ports, is carried out. Data about DSS routes have been collected in the years: 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2019, while data about SSS services have been collected in 2010 and 2018. Italian ports have been classified as follows: Ligurian multi-port gateway cluster, formed by Leghorn, La Spezia, Genoa, Savona/Vado Ligure; Northern Adriatic multi-port gateway cluster, made up of Ancona, Ravenna, Venice and Trieste; Campanian multi-port gateway cluster, composed of Naples and Salerno; hub ports, i.e. Gioia Tauro, Cagliari (only until 2018) and Taranto (only until 2014). The most important gateway cluster, for both DSS and SSS services, is the Ligurian one, which includes Genoa, the major Italian container gateway port. Genoa has shown an almost constant increase in container traffic in the time period analyzed. Italian hub ports are also an important group, but they have registered a negative trend in the years under analysis. DSS routes, to Far East and the American Continent, usually call at the Ligurian ports and the hub port of Gioia Tauro. Northern Adriatic ports are crossed by only a few DSS routes, but they are crossed by a large number of SSS routes, especially feeder ones, with transshipment mainly in the hub ports of Gioia Tauro, Marsaxlokk, Piraeus and Port Said. The evolution of DSS services shows clearly the effects of naval gigantism phenomenon: the number of DSS services has decreased, but the total and, especially, the average DWT have increased. As regards SSS routes, also their frequencies have decreased, but their length and, in particular, the number of ports called, have increased: this choice is performed by container operators in order to increase the ships ’load factor’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an analysis of deep sea shipping (DSS) container services, calling at Italian ports, is carried out. A comparison with analogous sets of data collected in the years 2011 and 2014 has been performed. The most important Italian port system is the Ligurian one, which includes the main Italian port, Genoa, which is the main access gate to the Padan Plain, the most productive area of Italy. However, other ports are also important: the Ligurian port of La Spezia and the hub port of Gioia Tauro. The comparison, with 2011 and 2014 data, has shown that while the number of DSS departures, from Italian ports, did not increase, the dimensions of the ships, which call at Italian ports, increased relevantly: this is in line with the current trend in container ship gigantism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]