PRESS DOSSIER
February 2008
THE LOGISTICS GATEWAY OF SOUTHERN EUROPE
The Port of Barcelona is the main transport and services infrastructure located in Catalonia, one
of the four ‘motor regions’ of Europe. Its area of influence stretches through the south and
centre of Europe and North Africa. The Port of Barcelona is the logistics gateway that links
markets as distant as the Far East and Latin America. It is a port whose continued increase in
goods and passengers has placed it in a leading position among the Mediterranean ports.
This leading position goes back a long way. The first wharves were built in the Middle Ages, with
the Catalan expansion into the Mediterranean. During the 18th and 19th Centuries, with the
bustling trade with the colonies, the Port of Barcelona managed to establish itself as one of the
main ports for overseas trade. It has maintained this important role to this day: the 450 shipping
lines, operated by 118 ship owners, regularly connecting it with 850 ports in the five continents,
often with a weekly service, set it apart as the top Spanish port for international traffics.
With traffic in 2007 of more than 51 million tonnes, 2.6 million containers, 801.406 new
vehicles and 2.8 million passengers, of which 1.7 are cruise passengers, the Port of Barcelona
is one of the leaders in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe.
A dynamic and expanding hinterland
The Port of Barcelona is the gateway to a hinterland that goes beyond the old borders between
states and through which flow in and out the raw materials that feed its industries and the high
added value goods produced in its area of influence. The specific nature of these products helps
contribute to the fact that almost 60% of the total goods handled correspond to general cargo,
which has the highest value, with a degree of containerisation of 75%.
The Port is an infrastructure essential to the Catalan economy and indeed to Spain as a whole: in
terms of the value of the goods handled, it represents 77% of Catalonia's foreign maritime trade
and 23% of the total for Spain. During 2007, the Port of Barcelona handled EUR 73 billion worth
of goods.
The desire to bring the Port and port services closer to the operators and end customers led the
Port of Barcelona to set up the Zaragoza and Toulouse Goods Terminals. The Zaragoza Goods
Terminal (tmZ), opened in 2001, was designed as a platform for the imports and exports of
Aragon, Navarre and La Rioja and helps to set our offer of services apart from our competitors in
an increasingly competitive market.
The tmZ project was completed with the opening of a rail terminal providing a regular
competitive and high-quality service for the freight agents of Aragon. In addition to this, the
strategic location of Zaragoza, along the Barcelona-Madrid-Lisbon rail corridor, and nerve centre
of the communications network of the north of the Iberian Peninsula, will make this rail terminal
the origin and destination for traffics and an intermediate terminal for traffics with the rest of
Spain and Portugal.
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The Port of Barcelona has set up a similar initiative in the south of France. The Toulouse Goods
Terminal (tmT) brings the port closer to its potential customers of the French Midi. The purpose
of the tmT is to extend the Port's area of influence and bring port services closer to the freight
agents located north of the Pyrenees and, in sum, to attract new traffics starting or ending up in
the French departments of Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine.
Two initiatives similar to tmZ and tmT are the Madrid dry docks, located in Coslada and
Azuqueca de Henares, from which the Port of Barcelona provides service to the major logistics
and consumer area of the city of Madrid and its surrounding region, from where it connects to
the other markets of the Iberian Peninsula. Finally, the Port is planning to open new goods
terminals in Lyon and the north of France to provide service to Central and Northern Europe.
A multimodal port
The Port of Barcelona brings together the largest offer of logistics and transport services
in the Iberian Peninsula and Southern Europe. The interconnection of all the modes of
transport (port, airport, motorways, railway) within a 5-kilometre radius and its location in an
environment offering the best services to the transport and logistics sector make the Port one of
the main commercial, transport and distribution centres in the Mediterranean area.
The Port has identified the railway as the priority mode for medium- and long-distance goods
transport. The port's connection to the European rail gauge, through the high-speed network, will
allow goods to reach their European destinations in a much shorter time. This improvement will
allow the Port of Barcelona to place itself in a competitive position with respect to the Northern
European ports.
Second Strategic Plan
The Port of Barcelona’s 2nd Strategic Plan 2003-2015 is the foundation that sets out the tasks
for the entire Port Community over the coming years. The Strategic Plan has defined the Far East,
North and West Africa and Latin America — regions with high growth potential — as strategic
forelands.
Starting from an analysis of the current situation of the port and the foreseeable requirements of
the market over the coming years, the Strategic Plan considers the need for the Port of Barcelona
to consolidate its position as the prime Euro Mediterranean logistics hub. To achieve this aim the
entire Port Community must be mobilised to adopt a common strategic framework and a new
way of working for the Port of Barcelona. This is the first time that all the companies and
institutions of a Port Community, in this case led by the Port Authority of Barcelona (APB), have
aligned their interests and taken on common objectives for facing up to the requirements of the
market of the 21st Century.
The Port of Barcelona’s strategic objective of becoming the top Euro-Mediterranean logistics hub
involves the simultaneous playing of two main roles: as a multimodal centre offering a broad and
interconnected range of all the modes and specialities of transport, and as a distribution and
supply platform providing distribution and supply logistic services, as well as post-industrial and
pre-commercial services. This must take place within the Port itself, and also in all of the external
operative and commercial bases. In order to attain this objective, the Port of Barcelona enjoys a
series of competitive advantages, including:
• The potential afforded it due to its location in Barcelona, the largest commercial and industrial
centre in the Mediterranean, and in Catalonia, one of Europe’s 'motor regions'.
• Its solid competitive position in technology, quality and logistics.
• Its geo-strategic position with respect to Europe and the Mediterranean.
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The sustained growth of commercial relations, and therefore of maritime traffics, between
Europe and Asia – especially with China - provides the Port of Barcelona with an excellent
opportunity to attract new traffics. Currently only 24% of the goods flowing between Europe
and Asia and passing through the Suez Canal are loaded and unloaded in the ports of Southern
Europe. The Port of Barcelona, which already handles 35% of all traffic between Spain and Asia,
rising to 38% in the case of China, aims to attract a large part of this potential traffic, which
takes three days longer to sail to the Northern European ports, and become the gateway into
Southern Europe for Asian traffic.
A touchstone port in the Mediterranean
The Port of Barcelona, which generates 16 000 direct jobs, is specialized in general cargo, and
high added value goods, such as vehicles, electronic products or consumer goods. This places it at
the top of the list of Spanish ports in terms of turnover and by value of its goods. The Port
of Barcelona's Economic Impact Study, based on 2000 figures, shows that some 75% of Catalan
sectors of economic activity are customers of the Port, a figure which will increase once the
enlargement becomes a reality. Thus, forecasts indicate that by 2020 the Port of Barcelona will
account for 6.2% of Catalan GDP.
The growth in traffic over the last few years has gone hand in hand with major modernisation
works, both in facilities and organisational structures, and a search for strategies to boost the
competitiveness of the companies and thus of the entire Port.
Docking services were privatised, and are now managed by the joint stock company Estibarna,
which has allowed us to enjoy close to 20 years of peaceful labour relations, a factor that has
given Barcelona the edge over other Mediterranean ports A far-reaching process of concentration
and specialisation of the terminals has also been undertaken. The terminals are privately
managed and are operated under a concessionary regime by companies competing with each
other. The Port of Barcelona currently has 30 goods terminals, three of which are multi-purpose
and the rest exclusively dedicated to containers, coffee and cocoa, fruit, perishable goods,
forestry products, vehicles, metals, solid and liquid bulks, hydrocarbons and passengers.
The two international container terminals deserve to be described apart. Terminal Catalunya, S.A.
(TerCat), which currently occupies an area of 35 hectares, was awarded the concession for the
first terminal of the enlargement. When the terminal is moved to its new site, these 35 hectares
will be freed up to handle new traffics.
Terminal de Contenidors de Barcelona, S.L. (TCB) will enlarge its facilities by 20.4 hectares, added
to by the 7.5 hectares currently occupied by the UTE Llevant Terminal which operates on the
Adossat wharf, and will move to Álvarez de la Campa wharf. TCB will thereby occupy a total area
of 85 hectares. The terminal will also take a series of measures to increase capacity and improve
services: enlarging the rail terminal, building a multistorey car park, demolishing the old
warehouses and increasing the size of the truck waiting area. The increase in surface area and
the improvement measures will make it possible for the terminal to increase total capacity from
1.3 to 2.1 million containers a year.
The two vehicle terminals, the first to obtain the ISO 9002 certification, offer a la carte protection
removing and finishing services. With 801.406 vehicles handled in 2007 (10% more than 2006)
by the two main operators (Setram and Autoterminal), the Port of Barcelona is still the leader
in the Mediterranean and is among the top European ports in terms of vehicle traffic.
Autoterminal and Setram have vertical storage areas to increase their operational and storage
area, with a capacity for 40 000 vehicles.
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To optimise port operations and increase the Port's capacity, the Administration Board approved
a reorganisation of areas in October 2006. This reshuffle will make it possible for some terminals
to regroup the activities they currently perform on different wharves into one single area, with a
special boost given to general cargo and short sea shipping. It is calculated that with these
changes, the Port of Barcelona will increase its capacity to create traffic by 10%, from 55 to 60
million tonnes, and from 2.4 to 2.7 million containers.
Top cruiser port
The Port of Barcelona has undergone spectacular growth over the last few years in a number of
other traffics. Tourist cruisers is a good example of this: the Port received 1 765 838 cruise
passengers during the 2007 season, of which more than half began and/or ended in the city,
in other words, Barcelona was the turnaround port. Security — an element highly valued by this
sector — quality of service and the attraction of Barcelona and of Catalonia in general meant that
nearly all the cruisers plying the Western Mediterranean used Barcelona as either a
stopover or a turnaround port.
Barcelona is the top cruiser port in Europe and ranks tenth worldwide, behind the big
Caribbean ports. It currently has six passenger terminals dedicated exclusively to cruisers, making
it possible for 9 large cruisers to berth at any one time. In the face of the growing demand for
berths and services by the cruise industry, the Port has begun to modernise the existing terminals
and to build new ones. In addition to the North and South terminals on Barcelona wharf, located
at the World Trade Center Barcelona, the Adossat wharf also holds four large cruiser terminals –
A, B, C and D - along 1 680 metres of berthing line. The new Terminal B came into service during
the 2005 season with an area of 6 500 m2, allowing it to receive larger vessels. Building work
began in 2006 on the new Terminal A, which will cover an area of 7 200 m2 and will be
operational by 2008. Terminal C, covering 2 259 m2, is used for turnaround operations for up to
2 000 passengers.
Finally, Costa Crociere, a member of the Carnaval Group, has built its own terminal on the
Adossat Wharf, called Palacruceros, corresponding to Terminal D. The Palacruceros terminal came
into service in spring 2007, covers an area of 10 000 m2, and is able to receive the biggest ships
currently in operation.
Short sea shipping
The Port of Barcelona offers different services with the Balearics and Italy, with 1 114 026
passengers in these traffics in 2007. The regular lines with the Balearics are currently operated
by three companies: Trasmediterránea, Balearia and Umafisa. The short sea shipping lines with
Genoa and Civitavecchia (Rome), belonging to the Grandi Navi Veloci and Grimaldi group,
connect the two cities with Barcelona on a daily basis, and the Trasmediterránea services
between Algeciras, Tanger and the Canary Islands offer mixed services transporting passengers
and vehicles, and are aimed especially at trucks.
During 2007, a total of 316 227 passengers used the short sea shipping services offered from
Barcelona and were transported 3 623 055 tonnes (up 21% over 2006). Furthermore, a total of
109 332 trucks travelled in this mode and therefore did not use European highways, thus saving
both time and fuel.
The Port of Barcelona has firmly opted to promote short sea shipping as a sustainable model of
transport involving substantial improvements in the operations of logistics companies; it is more
competitive economically than road transport, especially in view of increasing fuel costs; and
represents a substantial environmental improvement due to the increasingly congested European
road networks, with the problems of traffic and pollution caused by the exclusive use of trucks.
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This option will lead to the building of specific infrastructures for this kind of traffic and initiatives
such as the European School of Short Sea Shipping, an innovative training model allowing
students to experience the working, characteristics and advantages of this type of intermodal
transport directly on board a working vessel. The teaching activity of the school, which started in
2006 and is based in Barcelona, takes place on board ships sailing the regular lines between the
Port of Barcelona and the ports of Genoa and Civitavecchia (Rome).
Logistics gateway of Europe
The Port of Barcelona has been a pioneer in the development of logistics activities linked
to port activity. The Port of Barcelona ZAL (Logistics Activities Area) is a unique multimodal
centre in Europe, connected to all the transport modes in a radius of less than 5 kilometres,
which offers its customers the possibility of a la carte services: buying or renting space, buying or
renting purpose-built warehouses, and covering all their additional needs through a modern
Service Centre. The ZAL also boasts a strategic location, its own customs regime, integrated
telecommunications service, economies of scale and synergies among its companies.
The offer of services of the ZAL has proved successful ever since it was set up in 1993: the 66.5
hectares of phase one are now fully occupied, and the most of phase two have already been
sold, providing an additional 143 hectares.
The more than 90 companies already set up in the ZAL include some of the main national and
international freight forwarders and logistics operators. The ZAL makes it possible to attend to
the needs of the companies wishing to integrate distribution and transport activities that provide
added value to goods. The ZAL, in addition to the logistics areas in the Llobregat delta area, is
one of the fundamental tools of the Port of Barcelona that can enable it to become the main
goods distribution platform in Southern Europe.
A pioneer in services and technology
The Port of Barcelona has also been a pioneer and stands out as a model for port communities
throughout the world in terms of quality. The APB set up its Quality Plan in 1994 in search of the
greatest possible speed and transparency in the rendering of services. This plan has been
gradually implemented in the different terminals and companies that work in the Port.
Barcelona Port Community’s Quality Plan offers a Guarantees Programme that provides
written assurances that certain criteria will be met: total safety of the goods, speed of
customs clearance and rationality in the handling of cargo. What sets the Port of Barcelona
apart from other ports is that compensation is paid to the owner of the goods if any of these
elements are not respected.
In 2000, the Port of Barcelona itself was awarded the ISO 9001 certification, the first port in the
world to obtain this quality certification in its processes. This certification, which covers the
design, development and management of the quality systems of Barcelona’s Port Community, is
the result of the work done up to now by the Port in implanting quality checks in all port areas
and bears witness to the high level achieved by the different port companies.
Through the Steering Council of the Strategic Plan and the Quality Plan of the Port Community of
Barcelona, the Port has lent its support to joint plans with the ports of the Balearic Islands and
Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in order to guarantee goods traffic from door to door.
The Port of Barcelona has also signed assistance agreements for the development of quality
management models with the National Association of Ports of Uruguay and the Regional
Company of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.
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For the last few years, the Port of Barcelona has been working to achieve the maximum speed
and flexibility in the processing of port documents. The progressive use of telematic documentary
exchange processes in the different areas of the Port has become an important factor of
competitiveness.
The Port of Barcelona's Telematics Forum is a working group that meets periodically to analyse
documentary circuits, where they are and how they work, and to propose improvements. These
improvements, based on the application of new technologies and the reengineering of circuits,
attempt to simplify existing procedures and thereby bring about a greater speed and flexibility in
the processing of documents within the Port.
PortIC
The Port of Barcelona is also a pioneer in the application of the new technologies to maritime
port business. PortIC, Barcelona Port Logistics Community's telematics platform, is a
common technological and management model adapted to the different professional needs of
Barcelona Port Logistics Community. PortIC brings together representatives of the associations of
shipping agents, freight forwarders, stevedoring companies and customs agents, the Chamber of
Commerce and the APB itself. The platform has incorporated the entire chain involving transport,
importers/exporters and international electronic commerce services.
PortIC is an important contribution to the Port of Barcelona's competitiveness. The elimination of
paper in the processing of documents means much more than saving space or time: it means
saving in courier services, clarity in the documentary circuit, teleworking and, in sum,
repositioning the offer of maritime transport and positioning the Port as an international
transport centre. As with the Quality Plan, the PortIC model has been exported to ports such
as Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Alexandria (Egypt).
The new technologies have become a tool for improving all the Port’s services. One example is
the land transport of containers, the trucking sector: the Proatrans Restructuring and
Organisation Plan for Transport Access linked to the Port of Barcelona has achieved a number of
improvement initiatives, especially the implantation of type-approved communication devices in
truck cabins and identification teletacs in all the vehicles that operate regularly within the Port.
Proatrans has been a determining factor for regulating the container road transport sector in the
Port of Barcelona.
The plan was developed in different working groups focusing on the following aspects:
operation, organisation and rules of the sector; infrastructures and facilities; implementation of
new technologies; safety; prevention of occupational risks; training; corporate structure; image of
the sector: best practices and information; actions in the social and professional field; and
environmental improvements.
The working groups helped to produce a series of rules setting the conditions in which this sector
should work and made it possible to set up improvement measures with notable results, such as
processes of identification and prior notification, providing dynamism to the entire operation and
increasing the reliability of the logistics chain. In addition, in a strategic sector such as container
transport by road, this is an important step towards the creation of a “Paperless port”.
International scope
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External promotion is one of the main aims set out in the Port of Barcelona's Strategic Plan. The
initiatives aimed at boosting the Port's presence on the international markets have led to bilateral
contacts with companies, institutions and trade and transport leaders throughout the world, and
business and trade missions led by the Port itself.
To date, there have been missions to Argentina, Tunisia, Morocco, Mexico, Turkey, India, Brazil
and China (twice). These missions are a special point of contact between business representatives
and institutions and are an opportunity to strike new business deals. They are designed as a
showcase for importers and exporters to publicise the wide range of services offered by the Port
as well as a forum at which to exchange experiences and knowledge on foreign trade,
international transport and business opportunities.
The Port's presence on the principal world markets can also be seen through its participation in
the main international organisations. The Port of Barcelona holds the vice chairmanship for
Europe and Africa of the International Federation of Port Cargo Distributors (IFPCD); the
chairmanship of the Trade Facilitation Committee of the International Association of Ports and
Harbors (IAPH); the vice chairmanship of the United Nations Centre for Facilitation of Procedures
and Practices for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/CEFACT). It is also present in
Medcruise, the association of Mediterranean cruise ports, the Latin American Association of Ports
and Coasts; the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO); the International Cargo Handling Coordination Association; the Conference Board; the European Shippers Council; Council of Logistics
Management and the Catalan Institute of Latin American Co-operation, as well as currently
holding the presidency of the lobby called Barcelona Logistics Centre (BCL).
Port Vell
The Port Vell, or Old Port, is the urban port open to the public at large. The 56 hectares of this
area host the World Trade Center Barcelona, an office complex offering the latest services for the
maritime port business and foreign trade, opened in 1999; the five-star Grand Marina hotel; the
Maremagnum leisure complex with shops, bars and restaurants; the Aquarium sea life centre; the
large-format Imax cinema; an 8-screen cinema complex; a wide offer of sailing and water sports
activities: the Marina Port Vell and the Nàutic and Marítim clubs; the Maritime Museum and the
Catalan History Museum; as well as a wide range of shops and eateries. It is a favourite spot for
Barcelona residents and visitors alike, clearly shown by the 16 million visitors that go there each
year. The success of the Port Vell has contributed to popularising the Port of Barcelona and
bringing it closer to the citizens and tourists, making them feel at home there. The Port Vell has
been held up as a worldwide paradigm of port-city integration.
The Porta d’Europa mobile bridge and the North entrance mouth, opened in 2003, are a
substantial improvement for the Port Vell and for the Port as a whole. The bridge, which was
needed to connect the Adossat Wharf to dry land once the North entrance mouth was opened,
makes it possible to clearly separate the traffics of the commercial harbour from those of the
pleasure boats anchored at the yacht clubs, making traffic flows both safer and smoother. The
bridge also keeps lorry and bus traffic generated by the commercial and cruiser terminals of the
Adossat wharf - currently being enlarged – off the public road system, providing greater safety
and fluidity of road vehicle traffic.
The North entrance mouth is necessary because the seawall is being extended two kilometres to
the south as part of the Port enlargement project. The entrance mouth allows a better renewal
of the water of the wharves further inland. Thanks to the decisive water cleaning and quality
policy undertaken years before by the APB's Environment Department, the Port of Barcelona is
today proud to boast the cleanest port waters in the Mediterranean.
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The North entrance mouth provides direct access to the open sea for ships and vessels berthed in
the innermost wharves. This is beneficial to the pleasure craft moored in the marinas and the
fishing vessels. The entrance mouth has also provided a factor of added competitiveness for the
fast ferries with the Balearic Islands, which now take only three hours, a considerable reduction in
travelling time.
The area reclaimed from the sea by the North entrance mouth involves an ambitious urban
development project, designed by the architect Ricardo Bofill, which includes a seaside hotel, a
singular 100-metre tall building in the shape of a sail billowing into the wind, which will become a
new icon of the Barcelona seafront; an office building offering 30 000 m2; an area dedicated to
services - shops and restaurants - of the complex; and parking space for 1 200 vehicles. The
citizens' area thus created, covering more than six hectares, will become a unique viewpoint,
lying between Barcelona and the sea.
The port of the future
International maritime trade is growing unabated, and the Port of Barcelona with it, at a faster
rate than the large European ports. In order to meet the growth forecasts and position itself as a
touchstone Euro-Mediterranean port, the Port of Barcelona's Logistics Community has set itself
the goal of physically changing the Port and its environment, creating new port spaces — with the
enlargement of the Port and its ZAL— and improving accessibility to markets, especially in terms
of rail connections. These improvements are vital, as logistics activity is subject to harsh
competition in terms of prices and services, and requires both an efficient communications
network and space to be able to function.
The Llobregat delta Infrastructures and Environment plan, known as the Delta Plan, initially
covers the diversion of the river mouth two kilometres to the south. The land thus gained from
the sea will allow a resizing of the Port, which will double its current area to 1 300 hectares.
However, the Delta Plan does not only include the Port, but also covers the enlargement of
Barcelona Airport, the Llobregat Highway, the improvement of the road network, connection to
the European gauge rail network and the building of a large station dedicated exclusively to
goods within the port precinct. It also includes the Llobregat water treatment plant, one of the
largest waste water treatment facilities in Europe.
In March 2001, the Spanish Environment Ministry awarded the works contracts for the diversion
of the river Llobregat, completed in September 2004. The first stone of the enlargement works of
the Port of Barcelona was laid on the 12 December 2001.
The works now underway will be the physical base on which the Port will be able to grow. The
growth is quantitative (new wharves, new cranes, new accesses) and qualitative (new shipping
lines, better customer service, new connections with Europe) and will consolidate the Port as the
core of the main Euro-Mediterranean logistics platform and, together with the actions of the
Delta Plan, one of the nerve centres of the European communications network.
The enlargement began with the building of the seawalls, which are now practically finished: the
South seawall, 4 800 metres long, with a maximum draught of 22 metres, will cost EUR 340
million; the extension of the current East seawall by 2 025 metres, and a draught of between 20
and 25 metres, will cost EUR 225 million. The sea defence works will be completed with coastal
corrective measures, involving the creation of a new beach on the south shore of the river, now it
has been diverted, and will involve an investment of EUR 26 million.
The Port enlargement project was rigorously assessed and analysed by the Ministry of
Environment in a procedure that involved all the administrations and bodies concerned and
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ended with the Environmental Impact Declaration (EID) of the enlargement of the Port of
Barcelona, approved in July 2000. The EID sets out in detail which actions must be undertaken to
compensate and correct any environmental impacts caused by the works.
The Joint Committee for the Enlargement Works, involving all the administrations concerned,
performs periodic environmental checks on the works and verifies whether they respect the EID.
Each of the works has an Environmental Surveillance Plan and an environmental works manager.
Likewise, a follow-up is also made of impacts on all the environmental vectors: sheltered and
open waters, marine biota, air quality, marine sediments, natural areas, etc.
During this project, the APB was especially careful to minimise the impact of the enlargement
works on their surroundings. To this end, it scrupulously respects the legal framework, involving
both state-wide port and environmental legislation in force, in addition to the rules laid down in
the EID and the conditions it imposes.
The Prat wharf, the first of the enlargement, is already taking shape, and the first terminal of
the enlargement has been awarded to Terminal Catalunya (TerCat) with a stakeholding
by the Hutchison Port Holdings group, the leading worldwide terminals operator. A 30year concession has been awarded for the management of a 93-hectare container, 1 500 metres
of berthing line and a 16.5-metre draught at water level, with a total capacity to handle more
than 2.5 million TEU (containers) per year. The remaining terminals of the enlargement will be
awarded in the same way, as works proceed and new areas are generated, through a public call
for tenders.
The Master Plan also covers the enlargement of the Port of Barcelona’s Logistics Activities Area
(ZAL), which currently occupies an area of 66.5 hectares, and is now fully occupied. The diverting
of the river Llobregat has freed up additional space that will allow the ZAL to grow by 192
hectares, taking the port logistics area to 260 hectares.
Sufficient accesses
The enlargement works will increase traffic in the Port of Barcelona. Forecasts indicate that the
enlarged Port will be able to handle annual traffic of 130 million tonnes and 10 million
containers. The Port will therefore require road and rail accesses with sufficient capacity to allow
this huge amount of goods to leave the Port smoothly and speedily. The road developments in
the Delta Plan guarantee a large-capacity connection with the road network and, thanks to the
mixed use of the high-speed rail line between Barcelona and France (passengers and cargo), a
connection with international (UIC) rail gauge and direct access to the European rail network.
The Rail and Road Accessibility Plan in the Port of Barcelona defines the actions considered
necessary in access infrastructures and connections for responding adequately to the needs for
goods transport and mobility of people within the new scenario opening up as a result of the
Port's enlargement and the growing dynamism of its entire industrial and logistics environment.
Forecasts indicate that 62% of the 130 million tonnes that will pass through the enlarged Port of
Barcelona each year will require a land modal split, by road or rail. The Port of Barcelona has
opted for the railway as a means of connecting to its potential markets in the centre and north of
Europe in competitive conditions in terms of costs and time, guided by sustainability and mobility
criteria and avoiding gridlock.
In addition to the new accesses to the current Port and the enlargement area in Iberian and UIC
gauges, the Rail Master Plan also specifies the creation of 3 internal rail complexes — the
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current Can Tunis-Morrot-Port, ZAL Prat, and South Seawall-Llobregat — with rail terminals for
loading/unloading and receiving/dispatch. The future rail infrastructures will have the capacity to
operate 180 trains a day, equivalent to 150 000 tonnes/day or 30 million tonnes/year. The
planned infrastructures would increase the current rail share from 4% to a capacity of 30% or
35%, which means reducing road congestion by taking the equivalent of 20 000 trucks off the
roads a day, or 4 million truck trips a year. To channel this large amount of traffic, the Port will
have additional rail terminals in each of its new terminals, and a large loading and unloading
station will be built in the old bed of the river Llobregat.
For the rail infrastructure inside the Port and its area of influence, the Rail Master Plan proposes
to supervise and regulate the operation of the internal rail system via a port rail authority,
comprising ADIF and the APB, which will licence the service to a single port rail operator under a
concessionary regime.
As far as accessibility and the rail connection with the rest of Europe is concerned, once we have
moved on from the immediate situation of the mixed use of the Barcelona-Perpignan high-speed
line, the Rail Master Plan proposes to build a new dedicated line for goods transport in
international gauge, affording the Port of Barcelona access to the markets in the centre and
north of Europe faster and more competitively.
The Rail and Road Accessibility Plan in the Port of Barcelona envisages a series of road actions to
attend to growing traffic and to avoid congestion in the current road and motorway network.
The actions proposed are essentially to build a new dedicated 2+2 lane road for goods transport
in the Port, linking up to the Cornellà node and the link to the A2 and l'AP7-B30 motorways, and
increasing the capacity of the Llobregat axis.
Public and private finance
The scale of the works envisaged in the Port of Barcelona’s Master Plan from 1997-2011 involve a
total investment of EUR 3.5 billion, which will be footed by public and private investors. Of this
total volume of investment, about 60% of the total, some EUR 2.180 million, for superstructure,
facilities and handling equipment, will be financed by the private sector. The remaining 40%
investment, EUR 1.4 billion, corresponds to infrastructure, and will be financed with public
capital.
To finance non-income generating infrastructures, such as seawalls and accesses, the APB looked
to the instruments provided by the EU for the development of its Member states, specifically to
the European Cohesion Fund. The APB obtained a subsidy to finance 53% of the cost of the
port's sea defence works, with a maximum of EUR 277 million. In parallel to this subsidy, the APB
also utilises traditional sources to finance the remaining EUR 983 million of the Master Plan.
Firstly, its own annual cash flow; but also bank debt, both ordinary (such as the 12-year loan
which it took out last year to the tune of EUR 60 million), and the financing operation contracted
last spring with the European Investment Bank for EUR 250 million.
For the building of commercial wharves it is possible to consider the participation of private
capital through formulas previously applied in the Port of Barcelona which combine public and
private investment. As in the case of the doubling of the Inflammables wharf, the private sector
can invest in new port infrastructures, which it will later manage under a concessionary regime
under special conditions.
The new port facilities will have a series of positive impacts that can be quantified not only within
the port environment, but also within the Catalan and Spanish economies as a whole. Thus, it is
forecast that the enlargement works laid out in the Master Plan will generate a total impact on
the Catalan Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 1.7% and 0.34% on Spanish GDP. The total income
to be generated by the enlargement in itself - or its Gross Added Value (GAV) - will be EUR 1.724
10
billion. This means that for every EUR 0.60 invested, the wealth effect or generation of GAV for
the Catalan and Spanish economies as a whole will be 0.68 €.
The economic effects of the infrastructures are more important when the actions are
concentrated rather than dispersed. So the effects of the enlargement of the Port of Barcelona
incorporated into the impact of the remaining investments of the Delta Plan - improved efficiency
in all modes of transport and the pool of logistics services - will produce even more multiplying
effects on the economy.
In sum, the enlargement will allow the Port of Barcelona to attend efficiently and speedily to the
transport, distribution and logistics needs of its customers, becoming an infrastructure that
guarantees the competitiveness of the Catalan and Spanish productive sector.
The Delta Plan situates Barcelona as one of the nerve centres of the European communications
network. When the enlargement of the airport and the connection with the European rail gauge
become operative, the Port of Barcelona will be the main multimodal centre of Southern Europe.
This is why the Port of Barcelona is one of the ports with the greatest growth perspectives for the
coming years, both in quantitative and qualitative terms - because the Port of Barcelona brings
together all the factors allowing it to be the southern gateway of Europe and the main Euro
Mediterranean logistics hub.
2007 TRAFFICS
Total traffic (tones)
Containers (TEU)
New automobile (*)
Passengers (total)
2006
47.657.520
2.318.239
723.016
2.538.751
2007
51.389.463
2.610.009
801.406
2.879.864
Growth
2006/2007
7,83%
12,59%
10,84%
13,44%
11