Ports of general interest handled 42.5 million tonnes in February

• Liquid bulks with 13.9 million tonnes (+4.7 per cent) maintain momentum.
• The movement of new vehicles grew by +26.1%, exceeding 260,800 units
• Passenger traffic, 1.3 million people, is moving towards full normalisation.

24-03-2023 (Spanish State Ports Public Body). The 46 State ports of general interest, managed by 28 Port Authorities and coordinated by Puertos del Estado, handled 42,495,401 tonnes, a decrease of 3.3% on the same month of the previous year. The cumulative figure for the year is 86.8 million tonnes, a reduction of 4.4% compared to the same period last year.

Despite the fact that the fall in traffic has affected practically half of the Port Authorities, some of them have experienced substantial increases in the annual total, such as Marín and Ría de Pontevedra (+39.7%), A Coruña (+29.4%), S.C. Tenerife (+22.8%), Huelva (+12.3%) and Ceuta (+10.3%).

Similarly, as presented, general merchandise, the most numerous with just over 19.8 million tonnes, has fallen by 6.9% due to the reduced movement of steel products, chemicals and construction materials.

The automotive industry, with a significant impact on the Spanish economy, continues to recover its presence in the movement of goods in ports. Thus, if at the end of 2022, 2.7 million units had been moved with an increase of +13.2%, in February the trend continued with 260,847 units (+26.1%), and the annual total stood at 505,481 units moved representing an increase of +32.7%.

Liquid bulks, the second largest group in terms of millions of tonnes moved with 14.6 million tonnes, grew by +4.7%, mainly due to increases in gasoil (+13.9%) and fuel oil (+9.3%).

Bulk solids, with 15.2 million tonnes, fell by 4.7%, mainly due to the decrease in the movement of minerals, although, interestingly, the movement of coal grew by 85%, exceeding 4.1 million tonnes in the annual total.

Total passenger traffic, both liner and cruise, exceeded 1.8 million, with an increase of +49.2%, although in the case of cruise passengers, with 545,270 passengers, the growth was +162.6%.

Finally, the number of ships passing through Spanish ports increased by 4.5% to more than 10,470 merchant ships, totalling 22,100 so far this year.