Emanuele Grimaldi, CEO of the Grimaldi Group

"Up until now, we have only provided car carriers to the Far East. However, starting from 2025, we will have multipurpose ships that can load trucks, project cargo, containers, and Ro-Ro. The new deep-water maritime line will link Shanghai with Lagos, where we have a sizable terminal, and from which we will distribute the ships that service the line from and to North Europe throughout all of West Africa," announced the shipowner Gianluca Grimaldi during the Euromed Convention of the group to Athens, emphasizing that on the operational front the most interesting developments will still come from Asia and Africa. "The new connection will be operated with three dedicated ConRo ships, and the line is studied regardless of the safety conditions and transits in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal," he said. "Indeed, we will have few competitors who will pass through West Africa when everyone returns to sail on the Suez Canal."

This does not preclude additional orders for multifunctional RORO ships, like the ones that Hyundai Mipo Shipyard in South Korea recently completed. 

"We now have 39 ConRo ships, five of which are from the subsidiary Atlantic Container Line. We have had five deliveries of new ConRo ships, and the sixth, the Great Cotonou, is anticipated at the end of the year. We are the only ones who are focused on this kind of a ship," Gianluca Grimaldi concluded.

At the convention in Athens, Gianluca's brother Emanuele, who leads the Neapolitan group together with his brother-in-law Diego, also announced that "by the end of the year" a contract of 1.5 billion dollars will be signed with a Chinese shipyard for the construction of nine ferries. The Grimaldi Group has invested 3 billion dollars in the last two years to acquire seven ships, and another 21 are currently being built. The new ferries are scheduled to arrive in 2027 and will be assigned to the Finnish Finnlines (three), Grimaldi Euromed (four), and Minoan (two) subsidiaries.

The Grimaldi Group is a logistics and transport company with over 140 ships and a turnover of 5 billion dollars. Its accounts are growing due to a virtuous cycle of investment, efficiency, and results. The company has a 67.5 percent equity ratio, 6 billion dollars in net equity, and 3 billion dollars in investment, which will soon reach 4.5 billion.

At the consolidated level, net profit was 1.2 billion, while at the holding level, profit was close to half a billion. Regarding the results expected for 2024, Emanuele Grimaldi said that "they probably will not be as exceptional as last year's," but will once again lead to millions in profits. The blame lies in factors such as protectionism, which risks slowing global trade; decarbonization of maritime transport, which imposes costs and new challenges; and a lack of crew members to whom ever higher standards must be guaranteed. 

According to Emanuele Grimaldi, president of the International Chamber of Shipping, these are the priorities that need to be addressed. 

Grimaldi had the chance to review the most recent news during the convention, which included the following: the establishment of three new maritime agencies with direct control over the ports of Brindisi, Amsterdam, and Shanghai; the purchase of the Niels Winter Agency in Denmark; the implementation of the Grimaldi France Agency, Grimaldi Maroc, and Grimaldi Cote d'Ivoire; and the privatization of the port authority of Heraklion in Crete, of which the majority has been taken over.