The annual accumulated amount exceeds 428 million tons, 10.1% less than in 2019

Port traffic decreases by 5.5% in October

• Goods in transit continue to recover, growing by 12.5%.
• 9 of the 28 Port Authorities (Alicante, Almería, Bahía de Cádiz, Gijón, Pasaia, Tarragona, Valencia, Vigo and Vilagarcía) increased their traffic.
  
   
  
   

11-24-2020 (Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda) The 46 ports of general interest of the State, coordinated by State Ports, moved 45.9 million tons during the month of October, which has meant a decrease of 5.5% compared to the 48.6 million moved in the same month last year. In the accumulated tons for the year, from January to October, the whole port system moved 428.6 million tons, a decrease of 10.1% compared to 476.8 million in 2019.

The incidence of the pandemic is being very different, depending on the type of goods and the ports. Thus, by type of merchandise, liquid bulks, with 14 million tons moved in October, have fallen -11%, practically maintaining that ratio in the accumulated tons of the year, -10.2%, mainly due to the decline in the traffic of biofuels, oil energy gases, and crude oil in more than 11 million tons so far this year.

Solid bulks, with 7.7 million tons moved, decreased by -5%, although in the year's accumulated tons this decrease increases to -16.6%. In this group the decreases of cereals and flours, iron ore and other non-metallic minerals, but above all coal and petroleum coke are highlighted, solids having decreased by more than 9.5 million tons in total.

Finally, general merchandise, with 23.5 million tons, decreased by -1.6%, accumulating a decrease of -7.3% in the first ten months of the year. This group, despite the loss of just over 7 million tons of products such as automobiles and their parts, canned goods, wood, metallurgical and iron and steel products, and frozen fish, is being compensated by the increases in other products such as natural fertilizers, oils, biofuels, cereals, beans and potatoes, which have grown by more than 1.5 million tons in the first ten months of the year.

The goods in transit grew again the next month of October, with 14.6 million tons. Growth has been 12.5%, placing the accumulated tons of the year in about 128 million tons, 2.4% less than in 2019, and everything seeming to indicate, two months before the end of the year, that the recovery of a certain type of goods will allow a decrease of the total port traffic in the foreseen environment at 10%.

In terms of the Port Authorities, 9 of the 28 have experienced increases in the month of October (Alicante +32.2%, Almería +15%, Bahía de Cádiz +19.4%, Gijón +23.4%, Pasaia +19.3%, Tarragona +3%, Valencia +11.3%, Vigo +6% and Vilagarcía +18.4%), and another two have suffered minimal decreases (Bahía de Algeciras -0.07% and Las Palmas -1%).