Freight traffic through State ports closes 2022 at 563.4 million tonnes

• Significant growth in liquid and solid bulk compared to 2021.
• Shipping lines continue to opt for Spanish ports for cruise stopovers. Pre-pandemic data is surpassed, reaching 4,525 stopovers.

30-01-2023 (Spanish State Ports Public Body). Provisional figures for the closing of 2022 traffic for the 46 State ports of general interest, coordinated by Puertos del Estado, register 563,373,981 tonnes, which represents an increase of 3.5% compared with the 544,419,737 tonnes handled in 2021 and is at the same levels as the historical maximum reached in 2019 with 564.5 million tonnes.

As presented, solid bulks comprised the group that grew the most compared to 2021 (+10.8%), with more than 94 million tonnes and exceeding 2019 data by +3.6%, mainly due to the energy situation and the war in Ukraine which has led to an increase in coal and petroleum coke traffic (+72%) and also in cereals and their flours (+39.5%).

Regarding liquid bulks, they grew by +6.9% compared to 2021 with 182.6 million tonnes, where the increase in products such as natural gas (+39.7%), petrol (+18.1%) or crude oil (+12.3%) is prominent.

In relation to general cargo, the largest group, 271.2 million tonnes were moved, -1.8% compared to the previous year, due to the fall in containerised general cargo (-5.4%), although within this group, conventional general cargo experienced an increase of +7.3%.

Ro-Ro traffic grew by 8.6%, with 70.9 million tonnes moved, as did trailer and semi-trailer units (+32%), exceeding 2019 records by 7.8%.

Container traffic recorded a total of 17.2 million TEUs (20-foot containers), down 3.2 per cent on the previous year, due to a fall in containers in transit (-6.3 per cent). However, even the 2019 record for import-export, domestic and foreign container traffic was surpassed, with more than 8.3 million.

Passenger traffic, which was the most affected in 2020 and 2021, continues to recover and grow spectacularly, with a total of 32.9 million passengers, both cruise and liner, and an increase of 83.2% over the previous year. In addition, a record number of cruise stopovers was recorded, with 4,525 (+115.1%), surpassing figures for 2019.

Specifically, cruise passenger traffic increased by 267.3%, with 8.2 million cruise passengers, increasingly closing the gap with the all-time record of 10.7 million in 2019.

Also noteworthy are the increases in inland traffic (+41.1%); passenger cars (+53.6%); liquid fuel bunkering (+20.3%); and merchant vessel gross tonnage units (+24.5%), all of which exceeded the figures recorded in 2019.