VALENCIA AMONG THE 30 INTERNATIONAL PORTS WITH THE MOST CONTAINER TRAFFIC

 Significant growth in the movement of goods

Valencia handles traffic of practically all types of goods from every sector of the economy. The main customers of the Port of Valencia include: the furniture and timber industries, textiles, footwear, agriculture and foodstuffs (grain and fodder, wine and beverages, tinned food, fruit, etc.), fuel products (diesel fuel, petrol...), chemical and motor vehicles like Ford, or materials for the construction industry. 

The Port of Valencia also has regular passenger traffic to and from the Balearic Islands and Italy. In recent years the Port of Valencia has experienced a continued and solid growth in Mediterranean cruise traffic.

 

Ports are no longer just isolated cargo drop-off points, but have grown into traffic concentration points where the essential transfer of cargo from sea to land has brought with it an increasing number of value-added services and activities. This situation has obliged Port Authorities to attain positions in which they act as key players in the transport chain, guaranteeing a free flow of goods as quickly and efficiently as possible via the promotion of intermodal transport systems.

Together with these strategies for optimum turnover of cargo through the port, the Port Authority of Valencia has fostered the development of logistics activities zones (ZAL) to increase competitiveness even further.

The implementation of logistics activities zones in ports is the result of new requirements for handling and distributing maritime cargo from and to the port hinterland. Through VALENCIA VPI Logística the Port Authority of Valencia promotes, manages and operates:​​ ZAL of Valencia and Sagunto

Last October, the port of Valencia managed around 508,177 TEUs (20 foot containers), this figure being the highest of all its statistical series. October was the third consecutive month with notable growth - in a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic - both in general traffic measured in tonnes and that recorded in TEUs. These figures show that Valenciaport is moving away from the crisis generated by the pandemic.

In the year as a whole, the distances are recovering with respect to 2019 and are "approaching normal" at a rate of two percentage points per month. The data from January to October still indicate that the accumulated number of tons handled so far this year is 3.58% below the records for 2019 and the number of containers is -4.01%.

From the beginning of the year until 31st October, the ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía have managed 65.97 million tonnes of goods and 4,437,483 TEUs. It is worth noting that in the last three months (August-September-October), Valenciaport has managed close to one and a half million containers. 

In October of this year, the growth of 17.56% in the number of full containers handled must be reflected. Specifically, those for loading (exports) increased by 4.28%; those for transit by 30.58% and those for unloading (imports) contracted by 3.67%. In October, the movement of empty containers was reduced by 17.77%.

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The difference between the number of ships and goods handled is explained by the increase in the size of the ships, by the tendency towards concentration in the management of import/export and by the search for ports such as Valencia, by the shipping companies, which provide competitive advantages in agility and connectivity.

With regard to movements by type of goods, the "non-metallic minerals" sector continued to be the most active in the first 10 months of the year, with an increase of 9.33%. The remaining sectors show decreases: "construction materials", (-0.64%), "fertilizers" (-2.03%), "agro-food industry" (-2.73%) or "chemical products" (-5.79%). Other sectors such as "vehicles and transport elements" fell by -14.32% and "other goods" by 12.29%.

By country, between January and October the most active areas in containers managed from Valenciaport were the United Kingdom (+47.84), Canada (+45.81), Saudi Arabia (+26.20) and India (18.39%). The USA with 432,902 TEU and a decrease of 2.53% and China with 430,189 and a decrease of 7.35%, continue to be the countries that lead trade relations with Valenciaport. In terms of geographical areas, 18.32 million tonnes have been mobilised in the Mediterranean and Black Sea area, with a decrease of 5.62%, Spain with a traffic of 7.75 million tonnes (-9.92%) and the Far East with 7.5 million tonnes and a decrease of 7.99%.

In the accumulated year, Valenciaport commercially managed 418,715 vehicles, 31.35% less than the previous year; while RO-RO traffic mobilised 9.29 million tonnes, 13.33% less. Passenger traffic continues to be marked by the Covid-19 pandemic in the cruise sector (-93.12%), while regular line passengers have fallen by 40.34%

The Valencia docks concentrated 31% of the container traffic of the Spanish port system last year, after increasing the distance with Barcelona again. In addition, it represents 14.3% of the total traffic.

Last year the three sites managed by the Port Authority of Valencia (Valencia, Sagunto and Gandia) channelled 5.43 million TEU (standard twenty-foot container unit), 4.96% more than in 2018. This growth was achieved in spite of the change in trend in the last quarter of the year, a direct consequence of the international economic situation.

These results are fundamentally based on the behaviour of container import-export which, as a whole, has advanced by 6.22%. Full containers ended the year with a rise of 3.75%, with good data obtained by exports, which increased by 5.46%; imports, which rose by 4.88%; and transit, which grew by 2.73%. For their part, empty containers rose by 8.90% by the end of 2019.

The infrastructure has increased its traffic by 5.80%, with a total movement of 81,064,840 tons. This is the first year in its history that Valenciaport has exceeded 80 million tonnes and represents 14.3% of the traffic of Spanish ports. Foreign trade in general merchandise grew by 3.37%, with a total of 25,442,851 tonnes. Specifically, exports increased by 4.97%, mainly due to the good performance of the United States, which experienced an increase of 15.35%.

On the negative side, car traffic has decreased by 11.88%, with a total of 722,758 vehicles. 

On the other hand, the United States clearly stands out as the largest international customer, with 8.01 million tonnes (+23.83%); compared to China, with 6.37 million tonnes, practically the same figure as the previous year. A trend that the coronavirus crisis may accentuate in the first months of the year.

The overall volume of goods through Valenciaport up to May exceeded 31 million tonnes, 7.9% less than in 2019. Compared to May, the total tonnage was over six million tonnes, 18.7% less. In the year as a whole, the paralysis of economic activity and the variability in the movement of goods according to the needs marked by the health emergency are noticeable. Thus, for example, the agri-food sector is the most dynamic in terms of import/export, with sales abroad of canned goods (21% more) and other food products (+20%) standing out.

As far as imports are concerned, fruit, vegetables and legumes have increased by 27% and wine, drinks and derivatives have grown by 54%. The automobile and parts sector showed a 34% drop in exports and 28% in imports.

By country, the maintenance of trade relations with the USA stands out, as it has consolidated itself as the main trading partner, with a fall of 3.3%, while countries such as China and Italy have fallen by 22.6% and 13.7% respectively. With regard to exports in this period, the dynamism of Turkey and Morocco stands out with an increase of 16.8% and 4.1% respectively. In terms of full containers (import/export), the USA continues to stand out as the leading partner (with the same movement as in 2019), while China fell by 10.7%.

The health crisis has been particularly noticeable in April and May due to confinement and the tourist stoppage. The total number of passengers on regular lines with the Balearic Islands in May was 20,981, 51% less than last year, while like the previous month, there were no cruises in May. As far as ro-ro traffic is concerned, this month it has fallen by 66%, with 22,000 units compared to 65,000 a year ago.

We also talk about the fact that this year the paralysis of economic activity due to the pandemic and the months of confinement are also reflected in the slowdown of operations in the ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía. In the first five months of the year, the enclaves managed by the Port Authority of Valencia have managed 2,120,911 containers and a volume of goods in excess of 31 million tonnes, which is 8.7% and 7.9% less than in the same period in 2019. In May, the drop was 19.6% in containers, which in the case of full ones was over 20%.

Also in this month there was a 26% decrease in export containers, 29% in import containers, 15.7% in transit containers, while empty containers fell by 13.4%. In the year as a whole (January-May), the decreases were 10% in loaded containers, almost the same in unloaded ones, and 4.3% in transit containers. Empty management in the first five months of the year fell by 15.4%.

In relation to the territorial impact of the Port of Valencia and its possible further expansion, it is important to know how your loading and unloading will arrive and leave the installations and how they will do so in the future. In fact, the Mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, puts a lot of emphasis on opposing the construction of a "northern access" by road because he advocates giving priority to the railways. And the figures show that, at present, there are many lorries and few trains.

Using the month of June as a reference, in 2018, container transport in the Port of Valencia by rail reached 94 156 TEU against 108 170 in 2019, a growth of 14.8%. Road transport was 1,045,978 in June 2018 compared to 1,148,589 this year, representing an increase of 9.81%.

The transport of goods by weight, without tare, both in bulk and in containers, as well as liquid, is divided into 1.6 million tonnes (compared to 1.5 in 2018) by rail; 20 million (compared to 19 million in June 2018) by road; and 278,086 tonnes (compared to 200,237 in 2018) by pipeline.