The great Spanish ports projected investments to challenge Rotterdam

Spain had carried out his great works port 20 years ago. The ports have spent billions of euros on to beat the surface of the sea, but the crisis came and the plans of expansion cooled. Now, when the traffics maritime are growing at a sustained pace, and the recession seems like a bad dream, these enclaves are beginning to consider whether to expand their terminals goods to the shelter of those great works. The port of Valencia has taken the lead and plans a terminal of 1,200 million euros that, once finished, will double its capacity and bring him closer to the ports of northern Europe such as Rotterdam (the Netherlands).

The context is favorable after a few years hard: the big shipping companies are concentrating their loads and opt for the routes and ports more competitive; and growth of marine transport is maintained in 2018, with the ports of Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona at the forefront in Spain and among the top 10 in Europe in movement of containers.

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Valenciaport more than five million containers in a year, The port achieved a traffic record in 2017 despite the conflict of the stowage

The port of valencia today with space to 7.5 million TEUS (containers of twenty feet -the standard size - for its acronym in English) and in 2018 it will surpass in occupation five million. “Of the three terminals important of Valencia [in the hands of Cosco, MSC and APM], two are saturated and, if we take into account the annual growth rate, reaching 85% occupancy would cost us six to eight years. In that moment we come to the critical point of saturation,” explains the president of the Port Authority of Valencia, Aurelio Martinez.

The port facility believes that there is interest in investing and operate a new terminal building has become a hub of mixed –movement import/export, and international transit-. “If we would have taken three or four years ago, with a market that is more recessive, we would not have had to sue, or anyone else willing to bid,” admits Martinez. The environment is now more optimistic, so the 23 November were approved on the sheet-final of the extension, in march of 2019 will be convened in the contest and in the summer is expected to be able to choose the company that will build and operate the future terminal, which has been designed in phases. “We think that is going to award reasonably well, but if at the end there is no one that this, obviously not the will. Will only go ahead if there is a private investor,” says Martinez. That investor will assume the most expensive part, the equipment of the terminal, with a budget of 800 million euros. To change will have Savoybetting a concession for the operation of between 35 and 50 years.

Valencia already has today, will be finished in 2005, with the pier of shelter under which to build the fourth container terminal. But would fill what is now water, compacting the land, pour concrete and asphalt; operations that would cost 400 million euros and will fund the port with their own resources. The terminal would have capacity for an additional five million containers, with two miles of quay, with a total area of 137 hectares and 20 meters deep. Why embark so soon on such a big enlargement? According to the president, the port occupies a strategic and central location in the transport nodes with Asia and the north of Europe. It is also an autonomous community of export and is, thanks to its large hinterland or zone of influence, the port of Madrid.

Barcelona and Algeciras also want to grow

Valencia has advanced but is not the only port that barrunta potential expansions of their facilities. A few miles further north, the port of Barcelona, which undertook its major expansion from 2000 to 2014 –with an investment of 4,000 million euros - was discovered a few days ago has started the preliminary studies for the construction of a third load terminal on its south levee to 12 or 15 years. “We have to start thinking about it now because the harbor construction have to be planned well in advance”, say sources from the entity. The terminal is managed by APM is very close to its full capacity and the occupancy level of the terminal BEST, managed by the chinese company Hutchison, roza 84%.

to The south, the port of Algeciras, Spain, has about 37 acres, including public area. It features a dock of 680 metres in length to which is added another 130 additional. In total, 810 meters in line with the pier of the terminal semi-automatic of the area of Isla Verde Exterior, known as the Total Terminal International Algeciras (TTIA) and managed by a south Korean company. The Port Authority of cadiz is also developing its new master plan, which includes new additions though, like Barcelona, still lacks details because it is being developed. The expansion plans of the port of Tangier, in Morocco, could influence such expansion.

And in Bilbao, whose main market is the Europe-atlantic, the Port Authority's start in 1992 the expansion works in the area known as the Open Outdoors, where we have invested to date 1,000 million euros. The level of occupation of the port of bilbao round, currently 87%, one of the highest in the Spanish port system, which is building a new pier, called the Jetty Center, whose first phase will end in 2019. Will be 74 million euros of budget, 334.000 square metres reclaimed from the sea, and over a mile of berthing line.

If Valencia culminates its fourth container terminal, this would be the first semi-automated [Barcelona and Algeciras already have it] with what the port expected to reduce costs while its total capacity would increase to 12.5 million containers. Valencia, now fifth european port in container traffic, has been consolidated as a space port of reference in the Mediterranean and would be more close to the capacity of the european market leader, the port of Rotterdam. Always without losing sight of the growth of the Greek port of Piraeus, whose majority shareholder, the china Cosco, wants to turn into the major logistics hub for the distribution in Europe of goods coming in from Asia.