The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a EUR 60 million loan to finance the construction of a new container terminal at the port of Cadiz. EIB Vice-President Magdalena Álvarez Arza and the Chairman of the Cadiz Bay Port Authority (APBC), Rafael Barra, signed the finance contract in Cadiz. At the signing ceremony, EIB Vice-President Magdalena Álvarez Arza said that “this project will give a major economic boost to the Cadiz bay area by stimulating goods traffic and creating jobs. It will also contribute to the bay’s environmental sustainability and promote the efficient use of resources. With this project the EIB is helping to foster quality economic growth that is environmentally responsible, sustainable and inclusive, in line with the EU’s priorities and Cadiz bay’s needs.” APBC’s Chairman Rafael Barra added that “this EIB loan represents more than just financial backing for the project,” stressing that the Bank’s due diligence ensured the terminal’s economic viability and future profitability. He said that the construction of the new container terminal constituted the culmination of the Port of Cadiz’s Development Plan launched in 2000, which was based on the specialisation of docks and reorganisation of traffic: “this project, which will come to fruition thanks to the support of the EIB and EU funds, represents a turning point for the port of Cadiz”. The loan will help to finance the first phase of construction of the new container terminal at the port of Cadiz, including an internal access road. The project comprises two main components: the construction of around 590 meters of quays to a depth of 16 meters, the reclamation of around 22 hectares of new terminal area, and the dredging of the access channel to widen the turning basin; and the construction of 1.3 km of 2-lane internal access road, including around 0.9 km in a tunnel. The new terminal will replace the existing container terminal located near the passenger terminal and the city centre and will serve to separate passenger and container traffic, increase capacity and improve accessibility by land and sea. The project will also help to boost competitiveness and employment in the area. It is expected to begin in late 2011 and is scheduled for completion in 2015. The project will also be financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The total EU contribution, including the EIB loan, will cover around 87% of the total project cost.
World Port Development will deliver regular updates on the progress at Cadiz but in the meantime, we report on the latest news from several leading Spanish ports.
Barcelona
In 2010 the Port of Barcelona handled a total of 1.9 million TEU, reflecting an increase of 8% compared to the year before, when it handled 1.7 million TEU. In the first five months of 2011 Barcelona handled 887.431 TEU, up 19% from 746.645 TEU for the same period of 2010. In the first six months of this year, container traffic surpassed 1 million TEU, representing an 18% increase compared to the same period in 2010. Being an important trans-shipment hub for many shipping lines, the Port of Barcelona has always served as main gate port for the hinterland, which is the most powerful industrial area within Spain (20% of total GDP). Import and export volumes (600.000 and 700.000 TEU each) are steadily growing at a fast pace.
Maybe a major milestone in 2010 has been the dramatic improvement on train connectivity, with many new and successful services to the rest of Spain, including Madrid and the North coast, as well as connecting the Port with the European rail network through a UIC gauge service, from both container terminals. Access to the hinterland by rail has also been a major move towards Barcelona becoming one of the ‘main gates’ into Europe for Far East trades. Barcelona is host to two main container terminals (TCB and Tercat, which is owned by Hutchison Port Holding) with an annual handling capacity of 2.6 million TEU. This capacity will be doubled next year when the expansion projects currently underway at both terminals will be completed. TCB’s expansion at the South wharf will add 18 new hectares to the terminal, increasing its capacity to 2.1 million TEU. On the other hand, in the second semester of 2012 the new container terminal managed by Tercat-Hutchison at the site of the Muelle Prat will be operational. Phase I will feature a 1km-long quay, eight super-post-panamax quay cranes with an outreach of 22 containers, a yard area of 100 hectares, 18 container stacking blocks with 36 one-over-five automated stacking yard cranes (ASC), a fleet of shuttle carriers, tractors and trailers, an eight track rail terminal and engineering buildings. The Muelle Prat container terminal will be installed with an automated terminal operating system called nGen, developed by HPH. The quay cranes and ACSs are supplied by ZPMC and Konecranes respectively. The new terminal will have an annual handling capacity of 2.65 million TEU.
Valencia
In 2010 container traffic in the Spanish port of Valencia jumped by 15.14% – it handled a total of 4,206,937 TEU compared to 2009 when it handled 3.65 million TEU. The Port of Valencia is currently expanding its berthing and storage areas. This highly ambitious project will increase the port’s land surface area by 1.5 million square meters and thus double its present annual container handling capacity. The port of Valencia is host to three important container terminals: MSC Terminal, TCV Stevedoring Company and Maritima Valenciana. The 2 berth MSC Terminal with a total length of 770m has scheduled investments of around EUR 2 million for expansion works including a new 10.000 square meter container stacking yard and in 2012 an additional 12.000 square meters will be released by the Port Authority. MSC is also planning to purchase 3 new Konecranes RTGs for use in 2012. For the coming year the terminal is scheduled to handle around 1.6 million TEU. In 2010, MSC reported to an average of 27 crane moves per hour. TCV Stevedoring handled a total of 652,284 TEU in 2010. The company is projecting a throughput for this coming year of over 700,000 TEU. Investments on expanding both berth and yard areas were finished last year, boosting annual capacity up to 1.15 million TEU. The terminal has a berth line of 1.66km and is equipped with 9 gantry cranes. In May of this year, a new joint US service between CMA CGM and Maersk started. More and more customers are deploying bigger vessels in their services and to cope with
these future increases, there are some projects and investments in place to relocate the current gates and to increase terminal capacity to 1.25 million TEU. Maritima Valenciana has a total terminal area of 106ha with an annual container capacity of 2.5 million TEU. In 2010 it handled a total of 2.109.663 TEU and its projected throughput for this coming year is 2.117.007 TEU. The terminal has 2 berths with a total length of 1.78km with a depth of -16m alongside. The terminal has a direct link to the national railway network. In March 2012 a new Super Post Panamax crane will go in operation.
Algeciras
Since 2007, the port of Algeciras Bay has seen container throughput dwindle from a 3.4 million TEU to last year’s 2.8 million TEU – down 7.64% compared to the year before. In 2009, the drop in container throughput was ‘acceptable’ for the port authority as this was in line with most of the European ports experiencing a large drop in container throughput due to the global financial crisis. But the continued decreasing figures should start to worry the port authority, especially as it has put all its eggs in one basket with the Isla Verde Exterior, consisting of around 120 hectares of regained land expected to be completed by 2011. In general, the Port of Algeciras Bay continues to be a strategic hub for Maersk Line, as its sister-company is operating the APM Terminals Algeciras. But it seems that the container shipping line is slowly withdrawing its containers from Algeciras and prefers to use its TangerMed terminal across the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco where APM Terminals has a new trans-shipment terminal. In the first two months of this year, Algeciras handled a total of 12 million tonnes, up 10% on the same period in 2010. Container traffic came to 433,414 TEU in total (down 10% compared to 2010), caused by a 14% decline in international trans-shipment. There has been a shift in domestic traffic with import containers on the rise (up 46%) and export containers (up 6%). August saw some good news for Algeciras with the release of throughput figures for the first six months of this year. Following the recovery in activities in the second quarter of 2011, especially at the APMT Algeciras and TTI Algeciras terminals, container traffic finally recorded some positive figures – it reached 1,543,181 TEU – 3.85% more than in same period last year. The month of June contributed greatly to this evolution. Container traffic in June reached an all-time record with 332,484 TEU. This figure is 46.6% higher than in June 2010, when container throughput reached 226,744 TEU.
Las Palmas
In 2009, the Port of Las Palmas saw a significant fall in container throughput handling 956,736 TEU – a drop of 27% on the previous year’s results. The port attributed the decline to the continuing effects of the global economic slowdown. Last year, the Port recovered well with an increase of almost 15% – to 1.1 million TEU. This might have been contributed with an increase of domestic consumption in the Canary Islands as tourists were returning to the Islands. The islands’ strategic location at the crossroads between the continents of Africa, America and Europe has also positioned the Canaries as a strong international hub for shipping and trade, with 22 direct lines with weekly frequency to Africa alone. Due to the difficulties in the economy, the port developed several plans to kick-start the economy. The port authority approved a USD16 million investment plan for maintenance and repairs in the port, trying to create around 800 jobs. At the end of September 2010, cargo throughput figures from the Port Authority of Las Palmas were clearly reflecting a recovery. There was a rise of 18% in cargo throughput compared to September 2009. Container throughput in September reached 105,000 TEU – up 11.52% compared to the same month in 2009 – and for the first nine months the port handled a total of 894,000 TEU – up 14%. The Canary Islands have long been promoted as a European ‘doorstep’ for Africa and with more and more new investments and concessions in West African ports Las Palmas will see a further growth in container throughput – especially as container shipping lines will use Las Palmas as hub port on their north/south and east/west routes and then assign feeders to shuttle cargo to specific strings of ports along the West African coast.
A Coruña
In 2010 cargo throughput in the port of A Coruña amounted to 12,256,900 tons, up slightly from the 11,914,159 tons achieved in 2009. The Port Authority of A Coruña is committed to enhancing container traffic and is undertaking initiatives to this end. Last year it moved 5,623 TEU and for 2011 the port expects an increase, since the firm OPDR Hamburg has reinforced their commitment with the port by expanding their scale service to two weekly calls. This is good news for the port as it will cut transit times in the import routes from 12 days from Rotterdam to only 3 days. This is a milestone for A Coruña and is in line with its strategy of enhancing container traffic. Apart from the significant advantage in reducing transit times, the port of A Coruña will also benefit from the inclusion in the OPDR route from the port of Tangier, which will offer a greater range of opportunities for transferring with this entrance terminal to Africa which is itself experiencing its own growth as a logistic platform, second only to the activity of the giant port of Algeciras by a diminishing 10%. Liquid cargo saw the greatest increase with an improvement of 11.16%, ending the financial year with a total of 7,590,464 tons. As for dry bulk, figures were steady, down just 1.01% in spite of the strong drop in carbon traffics due to the negative conditions of the national energy market. This drop was counteracted by the outstanding increase registered in other dry bulks, such as quartz, which increased a staggering 59.21% by exceeding 300,000 tons with the commissioning of a new line. The most notable decrease was experienced in the general cargo movement, which dropped 24.56% with a total 1,092,742 tons moved; the port believes this decline was due to the current economic situation, which provoked a crisis in the building sector leading to a fall in the demand of building materials. Future projects for the port of A Coruña include the building of new port installations at Punta Langosteira, which is advantageously located in the neighbouring council of Arteixo. The Outer Port’s first phase w
ill be finished by the end of this year allowing the first vessels to arrive by 2012; according to the port authority the project is currently one of the most outstanding port engineering works in Europe. These premises will offer a great opportunity for the development of the area of A Coruña. Due to its draughts (over 22 meters and its 2.5 million square meters), the direct accesses to highways and railways and the closeness to the airport and its strategic location in the world sea routes, Punta Langosteira will offer outstanding conditions to become a logistic node of reference in the North-West of Spain. The port and its environment will be ideal locations for setting up industries in the liquid bulk, agri-food, textile, iron and steel, chemical and construction businesses, among others. Another positive result for A Coruña in 2010 was the outstanding increase in cruise passengers, which broke the record reached during 2008 with 70,695 travellers. This represents an increase of 31.96% compared to the figure of 2009, when 53,574 travellers stopped over in A Coruña. All the indicators show that this positive trend will be maintained in 2011, with the port expecting the arrival of more than 115,000 travellers.
Bilbao
In 2010, traffic in the Port of Bilbao totaled 34.6 million tonnes – an increase of 8% over the previous year. A broad analysis shows that general cargo went up by 49%, container goods by 20% and solid bulks by 16%.The number of TEU amounted to 531,457, a rise of 20% on the figure for 2009. Half of container traffic had the European Atlantic as its origin or destination, and Bilbao is still the main Spanish port as regards to container traffic with the United Kingdom. The European Atlantic, in general, still remains the Port of Bilbao’s main market. Here, the countries that have grown most are Belgium, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland. In short sea traffic with the Mediterranean countries there have been outstanding increases with Georgia, Italy, Libya, Rumania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Asian Indian Ocean is the Port of Bilbao’s second largest market, followed by the North American Atlantic. The main increase came about in the African Atlantic, which grew by 65%, thanks mostly to the recovery in Nigeria. The 30% increase in the Asian Pacific, was due to China, while in the South American Pacific, there was an increase of 87% with Peru and Chile at the head. In 2010, the number of shipping lines and the number of ports connected to Bilbao was again increased or reinforced. The new link with Saint Petersburg, (Finnlines), enables Spanish shippers to have their goods in Russia in only six days. This route is covered by Ro-Ro vessels, and makes Bilbao the only Spanish port with a direct shipping line to Russia. In addition, the Transfennica ro-ro service between Bilbao and Bruges, with four weekly sailings, included a weekly call at the British port Tilbury, within its rotation. MacAndrews also introduced new larger vessels on its service to the United Kingdom and Ireland, thus increasing its weekly services to these countries to five in all. Likewise, Team Lines and Delphis Logistic have begun a weekly service linking Bilbao with Sweden and Norway; Maersk Spain has covered the weekly Algeciras service with one of its own vessels, including calls at the Canary Islands and the Moroccan port of Agadir. The Port of Bilbao received 33 cruise vessels on board of which arrived 43,400 cruise tourists (+50%). more than in 2009. The P&O ferry Pride of Bilbao, which has linked Bilbao with the British port of Portsmouth since 1993, made 79 calls and carried 118,631 passengers (-13%). The Port Authority of Bilbao invested EUR 46.5 million in 2010 and in 2011 this amount will be increased by over 10% to reach 51.2 million. This effort is mainly aimed at the building of new docks, maintenance works, and the provision of new infrastructures to increase traffic. One of the outstanding works carried out was Dock AZ-3 with a surface area of 235,000 square meters and 600 meters of berthing. At present, works are being carried out on what will be the seventh dock in the Port Extension – the AZ-2.