Assocargo sets up Cargo Ship and Cargo Clay

Feb 20, 2003

Assocargo sets up Cargo Ship and Cargo Clay20/2/2003 - Cargo Ship and Cargo Clay are the names of two new companies that began offering raw materials and finished products transport services to ceramic tile manufacturers in recent weeks. Together with Assocargo, which maintains minority stakes, Cargo Ship and Cargo Clay shareholdings are also held by leading national operators in the sector.

Assocargo was set up three years ago for the purpose of increasing efficiency and cutting costs in the logistic sector. With these two new companies it aims to consolidate raw materials transport lines and develop promising new routes.

The objective of Cargo Ship and Cargo Clay - which operate by sea and rail respectively - is to acquire substantial shares of traffic in order to exercise a beneficial price control action for ceramic manufacturers.
"With Assocargo we have pursued two objectives," explained Alberto Spallanzani, vice chairman of Assopiastrelle and head of transport and chairman of both companies. "To break up a raw materials supply monopoly and to fully develop routes that in the past were only used occasionally. Through the partnership with these leading national operators, we now intend to reinforce our presence in the sector, thus increasing efficiency, cutting costs and establishing modern fleets capable of substituting foreign vessels, which could soon find themselves forced to stay in port."

The in-focus section provides the corporate structures and destinations of Cargo Ship and Cargo ClayCargo.jpegCargo ShipCargo Ship

The shareholders in Cargo Ship include two of the best-known national operators in the sector: Italship - Eli (owned by the Costa and Risso families of Genoa and the Romeo family of Naples), which generates a turnover of 30 million euro with 20 ships and handles 3 million tons a year; and Acciaro e Parodi, which operates in Sardinia, a company with a turnover of 8 million euro and 51 employees. Cargo Ship is responsible for sea transport. Besides shipping containers for trade show activities, it also operates the routes with Sardinia (where it controls 30% of total clay traffic), Turkey and Portugal. The next objective is the Ukraine.Cargo ClayCargo Clay

Cargo Clay is currently controlled 100% by Assocargo but leading national rail operators may soon become shareholders. The company handles rail transport of clay quarried in Germany and France and from other destinations where rail transport is preferable.