Container connectivity at Italian ports: Genoa, Gioia Tauro and La Spezia decline

WEDNESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

In the third quarter of 2026 the UNCTAD index falls for Italy's three best-connected ports, while Naples, Venice and Ancona rise. Italy remains seventeenth in the world.

Container connectivity at Italian ports dipped slightly in the third quarter of 2026: in the UNCTAD index update released at the end of September, Genoa, Gioia Tauro and La Spezia remain the country's best-connected ports but lose points compared with the previous quarter. For importers, the index shows how many service options each port offers, not how much shipping costs.

What the port connectivity index measures

The Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index, PLSCI, is calculated by UNCTAD, the United Nations agency for trade and development, with support from MDS Transmodal. It combines five components: the TEU capacity deployed on services calling at the port, the number of regular liner services, the number of active carriers, the average ship size and the number of ports connected directly, without transhipment.

The index does not measure volumes handled or quay efficiency, but how well a port is embedded in the container liner network. A drop of a few points can come from one service fewer, smaller ships on a route or a direct connection replaced by a transhipment.

Container connectivity at Italian ports: third quarter figures

• Genoa: 413.10 points in the third quarter of 2026, from 424.07 in the second quarter.
• Gioia Tauro: 309.84 points in the third quarter, from 325.89 in the second.
• La Spezia: 304.78 points in the third quarter, from 305.91 in the second.
• Naples: 169.46 points in the third quarter, from 145.55, the largest recovery among the ports cited.
• Italy's national index in the third quarter: 287.1 points, seventeenth in the world between Turkey and Thailand.

Among the other ports, Venice also rises, to 122.04 points from 111.82, and Ancona to 82.55 from 76.54, while Livorno, Trieste and Vado Ligure remain broadly stable.

How to read the decline at Genoa and Gioia Tauro

The changes are small: Genoa loses about 11 points out of more than 400, La Spezia just over one. The figure does not say why, and the update does not explain it: a composite index can fall because of a suspended service, a change of rotation or smaller ships deployed on a line. It is worth reading as a signal to track over time, not as a structural loss.

Gioia Tauro is a different case, because it is a transhipment port: its connectivity depends on carriers' choices on the networks linking large hubs to smaller ports more than on local demand. Naples, Venice and Ancona move in the opposite direction, showing that services are also redistributed among ports in the same country.

What it means for importers

Connectivity matters for importers because it measures alternatives. A port with more direct services offers more weekly departures, more carriers to choose from and less reliance on transhipment, which lengthens transit times and adds a point where cargo can get stuck.

Three useful checks. Verify whether the services you normally use still call at the port with the same direct connection or whether a transhipment has been introduced. Keep an alternative port of discharge, even another Ligurian or Tyrrhenian port, for periods when a service is skipped. And compare the cost of inland transport from the port to the warehouse: a slightly less connected but closer port may remain the best choice.

An index to follow quarter by quarter

Italy remains well integrated in the global network: it holds seventeenth place worldwide and its three main ports stay above 300 points. The useful reading is comparative, to be repeated at every update to see whether the decline at Genoa and Gioia Tauro consolidates or reverses in the coming quarters.

With La Merce, a shipment from China to Genoa is booked after checking that the service still arrives on a direct connection, because in the third quarter of 2026 the port's connectivity fell to 413.1 points.

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