Contship Italia is seeking more Asian business for its La Spezia Container Terminal in Northern Italy.

Senior management are holding a series of roadshows in Asia that started in Singapore on Tuesday, and then move onto Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shanghai. According to Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello, president of Contship Italia, the port is a gateway to North Italy and the South of Germany up to Munich, as well as Switzerland.

According to Michael Cashman, commercial director of Contship Italia Group Maritime Terminals,key advantages for the port are over 200 weekly rail connections, and they fact it operates on Sundays. Contship is does not only run the terminal but also the trains that connect to it.

“It is quite a unique value proposition, at least in Italy,” he said.

La Spezia currently has four weekly services calling from Asia, with the G6 Alliance the only major liner grouping on the East – West trade not calling at the port. These calls account for roughly 40% of its volumes. In 2014 the port handled 1.11m teu, and currently has a capacity of 1.4m teu.

Transit from Singapore to La Spezia is 17 days, while Shanghai is 27 days.

The company is investing EUR200m to expand the terminal to give it a capacity of 2m teu. It is the first terminal in Italy to have quay cranes with 23 row outreach and can vessels of 14,000 – 15,000 teu.

Contship Italia operates terminals in the the ports of La Spezia, Gioia Tauro, Cagliari, Ravenna, Salerno, Tangier and in the multimodal inland port of Milan, Melzo.