​The movement of goods in 2015 reaches a historic maximum

A historic record in the ports with 501.8 million tonnes of goods transit

• The last historic maximum in the total transit was recorded in 2007, when it reached 483.1 million tonnes
• A new record was set up by liquid bulks (167.6 million tonnes), general cargo (224.3 million tonnes), containers (14.2 million), passengers (21.5 million) and cruise passengers (8.4 million) traffics.
• All the ports exceed one million handled tonnes, and Algeciras port approaches the 100 million tonnes of cargo
  
   
  
   

02-16-2016 (Spanish Ministry of Public Works). The estimates made by Puertos del Estado and the Port Authorities at the beginning of  the exercise 2015 have been met, so the year-end closing has set a new record maximum with 501,815,624 tonnes of handled goods which has meant an increase of 4.09% over the previous year. It should be recalled that the last historical record was set up in 2007, when
483.1 million tonnes were handled.

But not only the total cargo traffic has set a new record, the liquid bulk (167.6 million tonnes), general cargo (224.3 million), containers
(14.2 million TEUs), regular passenger traffic (21.5 million passengers) and cruise traffic (8.4 million passengers) have also achieved record maximums).

These good records have allowed each one of the 28 Spanish Port Authorities, which manage 46 ports of general interest and are coordinated by the national port authority (Puertos del Estado), to exceed one million handled tonnes for the first time since the Public Agency was created. Similarly, several port authorities have almost reached three digit data, as done by Algeciras Bay (98.1 million tonnes) which places itself very close to the 100 millions, or Valencia which continues its progression and exceeds the 70 million tonnes.

TOTAL TRAFFIC 2015 BY PORT AUTHORITIES

Regarding the presentation form, the ports of Valencia (63 million tonnes), Algeciras Bay (62.4 million tonnes) and Barcelona (29.3 million tonnes) should be highlighted in the general cargo traffic which is already accounting for about 46% of the total handled goods in our ports (224.3 million tonnes) representing a 3% increase.  The largest increases were experienced by Motril (+ 7.7%), Valencia (+ 7.4%), and S.C. Tenerife and Vigo (+ 7.19% and + 7.17% respectively).

The second largest group - liquid bulk - has presented a 4.3% growth reaching 167.6 million tonnes of handled goods. The highlighted ports are Algeciras Bay (27.2 million tonnes), Cartagena (25.7 millions tonnes), Tarragona (22.3 million tonnes) and Huelva (21.5 million tonnes). The largest increases were experienced by Bay of Cadiz (+ 88%) and Almeria (+ 84.1%).

Finally, the solid bulk traffic, despite being the smallest group, which has reached only 96 million tonnes, grew the most, +7,2%. Standing out the port of Gijon, with 18.9 million tonnes of handled goods, almost doubling the second port with more solid bulk traffic, Ferrol-San Cibrao, with 9.8 million tonnes. The most spectacular growth was experienced by the ports of Algeciras Bay (+ 35%) and Almeria (+ 30.8%).

• 1 OUT OF EVERY 4 TONNES OF GOODS HANDLED IN THE SPANISH PORTS WAS IN TRANSIT

The strategic location of the Spanish ports, placed in the main transoceanic north-south and east-west routes, is encouraging the growth of the role of our ports as logistics platforms for sending goods to third countries, to the extent that about 25% (118.5 million tonnes) of all goods that passed through our ports were in transit.

Similarly, ro-ro traffic (roll on/ roll off of road vehicles that choose long distance shipping) keeps increasing year after year, and in 2015 presented an increase of 6.3%, exceeding the 51 million tonnes.

The container traffic remains the most commonly used method to transport goods. About 71% of the total general cargo (158.9 million tonnes) travelled inside the 14.2 million TEUs (20-foot containers) handled in ports.

• THE PORTS, ESSENTIAL FOR PASSENGER TRANSPORT, WITH MORE THAN 30 MILLION USERS

Passenger traffic, both from the mainland and between islands, has reached 29,966,075 people, 8.4 million of which were cruise passengers. These figures confirm the importance of the ports for regular shipping lines both for communication between the peninsula and the islands and major enclaves in North Africa and for the inter-island traffic.

Regarding the cruise passengers traffic, the Spanish destinations have become usual in all the routes covered by the different European circuits, placing some of our ports among the top worldwide destinations. Thus, Barcelona, has received 2.5 million cruise passengers who transformed it in the main port in Europe and the 4th in the world as a home port, the Balearic Islands exceeded the 1.7 million visitors, and the ports of the Canary Islands received more than 2.1 million visitors.

CRUISE PASSENGERS TRAFFIC 2015 BY PORT AUTHORITIES