Port of Trieste: containers up 22.3% in the third quarter, but trains down 14%

TUESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2026

The Adriatic port closed the first nine months of 2026 at 528,125 TEU, up 2.5%, after a weaker first half; the closure of Tarvisio Boscoverde is holding back rail towards Central Europe.

Port of Trieste containers: in the third quarter of 2026 the port handled 165,502 TEU, 22.3% more than in the same period of 2025, and closed the first nine months at 528,125 TEU, up 2.5%. Over the same period, however, trains fell by 14%, because of limits on rail corridors and the closure of the Tarvisio Boscoverde rail facility.

Port of Trieste containers: the nine-month figures

The Eastern Adriatic Sea Port System Authority released its January-September results on 19 October. The most awaited figure was containers, which had been falling in the first half: at the end of June the port was down 3.97% in TEU compared with the first six months of 2025. The third quarter reversed the trend and brought the cumulative figure back into positive territory.

Overall Trieste handled 45.2 million tonnes of cargo, up 3.1%. The largest item remains liquid bulk, 32.3 million tonnes, up 3.9%, which matters little to buyers of finished products. The flows that concern importers of consumer goods, promotional items and components are containers, ro-ro and general cargo, and that is where it pays to look.

The figures, item by item

• Containers, third quarter of 2026: 165,502 TEU, up 22.3% on the same quarter of 2025.
• Containers, January-September 2026: 528,125 TEU, up 2.5% on the first nine months of 2025.
• Ro-ro, January-September: 241,034 units, up 3.4%; general cargo 12.8 million tonnes, up 1%.
• Trains, January-September: 5,206, down 14% on the same period of 2025.
• Total cargo at the port of Trieste: 45.2 million tonnes, up 3.1%; including Monfalcone the system exceeds 47.9 million, up 1.8%.

Why trains are falling while containers grow

The port authority attributes the rail decline to two causes. The first is the limits that have long reduced capacity and regularity on European corridors. The second is the closure of the Tarvisio Boscoverde facility, operated by Italy's rail infrastructure manager RFI, from late August through September, with a partial reopening from mid-September restricted to a ten-hour night window.

The figure matters because Tarvisio Boscoverde sits on the rail route towards Austria: when its capacity shrinks to a single night window, trains bound for Central Europe are squeezed into a few hours and every delay adds to the next. The report does not say how many containers left the port by road instead of rail during the closure, nor what drove the rebound in TEU in the third quarter. The drop in trains measures the trains handled, not containers left waiting on the quay.

What it means for importers

For anyone receiving goods from Asia via the Adriatic, the third quarter signals that Trieste is again capturing volumes after a weaker first half. The bottleneck, at least until Tarvisio Boscoverde is back to full capacity, suggests looking at the last leg rather than the sea leg.

In practice it is worth asking the forwarder, before departure from Asia, whether the container will continue by train or by truck and with which exit window from the terminal. Quotes should allow for the extra days in port that a rail departure tied to the night can add, with the related storage costs. For goods bound for north-eastern Italy and Lombardy it makes sense to compare the total cost, freight plus delivery to destination, of discharging in Trieste with arriving in Genoa or La Spezia, especially for loads with a fixed delivery date such as those for year-end sales.

Anyone with customers in Austria or Bavaria has one more reason to ask for weekly updates on the line: the September report shows only a partial reopening, and as long as the window stays at ten hours, northbound rail capacity remains reduced.

The next step

With La Merce, importers shipping from Asia via Trieste put the leg from port to warehouse into the quote alongside the freight: with trains down 14% in the first nine months, the delivery date is agreed knowing in advance how and when the container will leave the quay.

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