2nd Dissemination Conference and 2nd Policy Advisory Group Meeting in Milan
18th and 19th June 2018, Milan
This major event organised by the Italian project partners Sviluppo Chemica S.p.A. and the Province of Novara took place on 19 June 2018 in Milan. The second dissemination conference of the ChemMultimodal project was devoted to the topic of multimodality development in Central Europe. More than 60 participants had the opportunity to get to know to the ChemMultimodal project and to experiences with multimodal transport from different practical perspectives.
The event was opened by Giuseppe Cremona (Vice-President of the Province of Novara). In his welcome address he explained the importance of the chemical industry as one of the most signifcant industries in Italy. Afterwards, the ChemMultimodal project and its work progress was introduced by André Mangelsdorf (Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitalisation Saxony-Anhalt), followed by a presentation of the Italian pilot project by Enrico Brena (Sviluppo Chemica S.p.A.) with focus on positive implications and challenges in implementing real modal shift. Dario Rossi (Lamberti S.p.A) spoke about its first attempt to transport goods from Italy to Spain by using different modes of transport and highlighted especially the practical challenges of multimodal transport. Gabriele Pazzagli (Nouva Solmine S.p.A.) represents a company which is very interested in multimodal transport logistics and in reorganization of its transport of chemical goods. He presented his company and its current logistics arrangements which include a large storage facility and also an own rail track. This company also faces challenges of multimodal transport such as the fact that destinations sometimes lack suitable infrastructure to transport chemical goods in a multimodal manner. Also, Fabio Ungari (DB Cargo Italia Services S.r.l.) highlighted challenges, infrastructure bottlenecks and the need to search for the optimal solution individually as realized in the ChemMultimodal pilot phase. He introduced the DB Cargo company to the audience and gave an overview about the existing and planed investments. The discussion showed that multimodal transport solutions can be a competitive option to road transport if they are set up right. But, there still exist infrastructure bottlenecks especially for cross-border transports that are hindering the development of more multimodal transport.
In the second part of the event, the 2nd Policy Advisory Group Meeting took place and was moderated by André Mangelsdorf (Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitalisation Saxony-Anhalt). During the round table discussion, key actors and decision-makers of multimodal transport dicussed about regional, national and European strategies and policies to further promote multimodal transport and to reduce barriers that hinder decisions to shift road transports to multimodal. Roberto Delponte (Lombardy Region) answered the question about the most important issues related to the transport of hazardous goods. He highlighted the importance to strengthen the capacities for cross-border rail connections, especially between the Swiss border and Ligurian ports. Mr. Gaetano Conti (Federchimica) was asked to describe the most important figures related to the chemical industry in Italy and which role does the industry play for the region. Thus, he emphasized Lombardy as a region with one of the highest number of employees in the chemical industry around Europe and a large portion of SMEs in the production sector. According to his contribution, today’s road transport accounts for more than 50 percent of all transports of chemical goods which provides an enormous potential for rail transport. The question of what are the planned infrastructure investments to promote more multimodal transport was answered by Benedetto Legittimo (National Transport Ministry). He presented several measures to simplify regulations concerning intermodal transport and pointed out the importance that intra-European infrastructures along TEN-T networks are enhanced. Last speaker, Domenico Marino (Italian Rail Infrastructure Company), explained the current infrastructure improvements and developments and outlined how railway lines and stations are equipped to handle and transport chemical goods.
The agenda of this event can be downloaded here.
