Gioia Tauro
Gioia Tauro is a Municipality belonging to the Province of Reggio Calabria, in Calabria ( IT ).
Geography
Main data
- Altitude (max): 10 m
- Surface: 38 km²
- Population: 18,483 inhabitants
- Density: 486 inh./km²
- Neighboring municipalities: Palmi, Rizziconi, Rosarno, San Ferdinando, Seminara
- Zip code: 89013
- Dialing code: +39 0966 ...
- ISTAT code (for national census): 080038
Winds
- Sirocco, a hot dry wind originating in the desert of Sahara (from South-East);
- Libeccio, very dangerous for shippers (to be avoided - from South-West);
- Mistral (Ponente), the predominant and quiet wind (from North-West).
Gioia Tauro seaport
Within the seaport more than 3,000,000 TEUs per year are handled, receiving more than 3,000 ships (2003): at present it is the first seaport in Italy (right before Genoa and La Spezia) and in the Mediterranean sea (before Algeciras and Valencia) with reference to containerised freight flows, ranked third in Europe just after Rotterdam and Hamburg seaports.
The seaport represents more than a third (2002) of the whole national traffics and it is specialised in transhipment activities, taking the place of Malta seaport as the node for overseas traffics from/to USA and from/to Far East.
The Medcenter Container Terminal (MCT, Contship) is the main operator working within the seaport of Gioia Tauro.