Ignazio Messina now represented in Switzerland
The shipping line Ignazio Messina has appointed Basel-based Abacus Shipping as its maritime agent for Switzerland, with effect from February 2024. Ignazio Messina, one of Italy’s oldest shipping lines, provides regular services linking Mediterranean ports to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, connecting more than 50 ports in 40 countries.
In its latest media release, the Messina Group confirmed that it has decided to specialise in container transport, calling the move “a radical strategic choice.” The conversion of the fleet to containerships is in full swing. The family-run company has gradually sold a total of eight con-ro freighters in recent months.
The group also stated that "it is determined to grow rapidly through other acquisitions of modern vessels on the market with which it will not limit itself to transporting only containers, but will also continue to acquire exceptional pieces, projects and rolling stock."
The shipping line added that the ceremony for the maiden voyage of the ‘Jolly Rosa’ took place in Genoa recently. It’s the first in the series of four containerships purchased in H2/2023. The vessels mark the new course of Ignazio Messina from IMT, the terminal it manages in the port of Genoa by Messina, which for years now has been both the operational base of the Genoese fleet and the control centre of Ignazio Messina’s Mediterranean and Italian logistics system.
The areas of the San Giorgio Terminal are also expected to become a part of it soon. “We’ve only completed the first phase of the total repositioning of our company,” said Messina group president Andrea Gais, adding that “the decision is to focus more than before on important and fast-growing markets, such as the Persian Gulf countries and India and Pakistan, and their growing trade links to Mediterranean countries – also as an alternative to routes to and from China.” (cd)