Spanish ports handled 408 million tons until September

Passengers, both from cruises and regular lines, reached 30.5 million, 20% more than between January and September 2022.

26-10-2023 (Public Body Puertos del Estado). The traffic of the state-owned port system continues to show the global economic slowdown and geopolitical uncertainty. Between January and September of this year, the general interest ports moved 408,527,607 tons, which is 4% less than in the same period of the previous year.

The trend of the last months continues with solid bulk registering increases in these first nine months, 0.2%, up to 69.5 million tons, thanks to the movement of cereals (+49.5%) and a slight rebound in coal (+6.4%). And general cargo falling, 5.5%, dragged down by containerized cargo (-8.2%). Regarding liquid bulk, despite its growth in September compared to the same month of the previous year (+5.7%), in the accumulated nine months of the year, it remains below the same period of the previous year (-3.7%).

Conventional general cargo increased by 0.8%, up to 63.3 million tons, driven by vehicles (+26.5%) up to 2.87 million tons, and by cereals and their flours (in this form of presentation), which increased by 46.8%. Ro-ro traffic grew by 1% up to 54.3 million tons.

The number of merchant ships through Spanish ports increased by 5.5% compared to the first nine months of 2022, with a total of 125,914 units, and gross tonnage increased by 6.7%.

Passenger traffic also maintains its upward trend. In total, 30.5 million people passed through Spanish ports between January and September, 20.1% more than in those months of the previous year. It is worth noting the end of the Strait of Gibraltar operation which, since it began on June 15 until its official end on September 15, recorded a historic maximum movement of 3.2 million people and 775,366 vehicles through the main Spanish ports with connections to North Africa (with Algeciras and Almería at the forefront), in what is considered the largest movement of people between two continents, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.

Until September, cruise passengers exceeded 8.4 million, 56.6% more than the previous year, confirming the sustained recovery of the sector this year.