Container exports from Barcelona Port increased by 7.7% in the first quarter of 2013

Barcelona (ACN).- The exports from the Port of Barcelona made via container increased by 7.7% between January and March, as the Port Authority announced in a press release on Wednesday. Exports represented 127,950 full TEU containers, which is almost half of the total 241,752 full TEU containers transported through the Catalan harbour in the first quarter of the year. Furthermore, in the month of March, container exports increased by 26%. According to the Barcelona Port Authority container traffic also increased thanks to the 3% growth in transfers from one ship to another. In addition, 357,953 passengers went through Barcelona Port in the three winter months, an increase of 18% compared to last year. 221,460 of them were cruise ship passengers, which represents a 40% increase compared to the same period last year. The Port of Barcelona registers much higher passenger figures in the warm season.

Regarding imports, they have registered a low decrease of just 1%. However the month of March was particularly good, probably compensating for February’s slow-down, altered by the Chinese New Year. In this sense, imports in March have shown an increase for the first time in the last 18 consecutive months.

TEU’s total traffic, either with full or empty containers, was 406,608 TEU containers in all. This is a 1% decrease compared to last year’s figures. The poor domestic demand and the gain in competitiveness resulted in having more exports than imports, which also resulted in “importing” empty containers in order to fill them with goods to export.

In total, 9.8 million tonnes of goods were transported through the Port of Barcelona. The general goods transportation decreased by 1%, mostly due to the decrease in goods not transported via container, which decreased by 5%. However, the tonnes of goods transported via container increased by 0.8%. In the last few months, the Port of Barcelona has unveiled two new container terminals and a temporary international-width standard railway connection with Europe has also started to operate, allowing trains go non-stop from Central Europe to Barcelona Port and vice-versa.

In addition, bulk liquids accumulated a 5.5% drop since the increase in the amount of bio-fuel and petrol did not compensate for the decrease in natural gas and diesel fuel. Regarding solids transported in bulk – mostly cereals and flours – their volume dropped by 2.4% during the first three months of 2013, although results were positive in March.

Regarding the transport of cars, which is one of the harbour’s main activities, 164,452 car units were transported through the port, an increase of 1% compared to last year. Despite the decrease in cabotage car transportation (travelling from one port to another in the same country) and car imports – due to the Spanish economic crisis – exports compensated since they grew by 3.3%. The markets that most contributed to Barcelona’s car exports were Algeria, Turkey, the United Kingdom and China. In addition, car transfers from one ship to another increased by 87%, confirming Barcelona’s harbour as a logistics platform for the car industry. The cars from Asia going to Algeria, those going from Morocco to Slovenia and Turkey and those going from the United Kingdom to Morocco were particularly relevant to this spectacular increase.