The PSA Venice-Vecon container terminal at the port of Venice has strengthened its infrastructure with the arrival of three new fully electric, zero local-emission E-RTG yard cranes. The €8.5 million investment forms part of the development plan launched by PSA Italy following the renewal of the Marghera terminal concession, signed with the Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mare Adriatico in June 2023.
The cranes were ordered in December 2024 and built during 2025 by China’s ZPMC, in line with PSA Group standards and tailored to the operational requirements of the Venetian terminal. The new E-RTGs will mainly be deployed for the handover of full containers and will help increase yard capacity, with direct benefits for landside operational fluidity and reduced waiting times for road haulage vehicles, particularly during traffic peaks.
PSA Italy explains that the introduction of electric cranes serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it enhances the level of service offered to shipping lines and the wider logistics chain, supporting the overall efficiency of the port of Venice’s container supply chain. On the other, it eliminates local emissions compared with traditional diesel RTGs and significantly reduces energy consumption, in line with the terminal’s energy transition strategies.
The E-RTGs will be discharged from the vessel Zhen Hua 35, which departed from the port of Shanghai on 10 October and called at the PSA Genova Pra’ terminal on 14 December to deliver a further six fully electric units. Following berthing at Marghera, installation activities and engineering tests will allow the new equipment to become fully operational from early March 2026.
In the first eleven months of the year, the Venetian port system handled 487,397 TEU, marking an increase of 11.4% compared with the same period of the previous year, equal to more than 50,000 additional TEU. Traffic growth is being accompanied by a broader push to strengthen environmental sustainability, including the development of Marghera as a hub for green hydrogen production and logistics to support the electrification of port equipment.
For PSA Venice-Vecon, the arrival of the new cranes represents one of the key milestones of the first phase of planned investments for the Venetian terminal, within an overall commitment of more than €80 million announced by PSA Italy in 2023. In recent years, the programme has already included the introduction of new reach stackers, upgrades to yard infrastructure, the installation of new reefer racks, improvements to worker facilities and the use of biofuel to replace conventional diesel for internal combustion equipment.
