Spanish volumes grow despite dry bulk decline

However, solid bulk cargoes declined by 8.5% mainly due to a decrease in coal and petroleum coke volumes.

Nonetheless, all other main cargo headings registered an increase. Liquid bulk increased by 5.8%, general cargo by 4%, ro-ro traffic by 5.8%, container traffic by 4%, total passenger traffic by 4.1% and cruise passengers by 4.9%.

As for total traffic, the Port Authority of Bahía de Algeciras exceeded 82.8 Mt, followed by Valencia with 61.6 Mt, Barcelona with 51.9 Mt and Bilbao with 26.5 Mt. The greatest increase was registered by the Port Authorities of Málaga (+20.1%), Santander (+14%), Vilagarcía de Arousa (+13.2%) and Bahía de Cádiz (+12.7%).

Cargo in transit, totalling 117.9 Mt and a 7.6% increase, represented 28.2% of the total amount moved by Spanish ports, most of which was concentrated in the ports of Bahía de Algeciras, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas. The Ministry of Transport said that this is traffic confirmed the relevance of Spanish ports in global logistics chains which are still attracting cargo en route to third countries.