port

Ferrari Land, Europe's first theme park in Europe entirely dedicated to the Ferrari, will open its doors this Friday. Located next to Port Aventura, in Vila-Seca, a town in the southern Catalan region of Tarragona, Ferrari Land represents a €100 million investment, occupies 70,000 m2, and includes 11 rides and attractions. The most popular is the ‘Red Force’, Europe’s largest and fastest roller-coaster. In fact, it is a vertical accelerator which goes from 0 to 180 km/h in five seconds, simulating the acceleration of a Formula 1 race car. More than 250 media from all over the world attended the inauguration this Thursday, including Ferrari’s founder son, Pietro Ferrari. With this new attraction, Port Aventura World, which includes Port Aventura and the adjacent Caribbean World water park, is set to boost the Vila-Seca area and turn Port Aventura World into a leading family destination.

The port of Barcelona closed last year with unprecedented figures. The transport of shipping containers rose by 14.5% with a record figure of 2.2 TEU containers handled. This according to the data presented on Tuesday by the Port President, Sixte Cambra, who said that exports rose by 3.8% while imports increased by 8.7%. The Asian-Oceania market now represents 77% of imports and 43% of exports from the port. In fact, China alone accounts for 43% of the import containers, with a 13% increase during 2016. It is also to China that most of the exporting containers go. The American market represents 25% of exports and 9% of imports from the Port of Barcelona. Catalan exports being handled from the Port of Barcelona are mainly food, equipment and chemicals. Imports are basically textiles, equipment and other manufactured products.

Catalonia and Japan have renewed their business, cultural, touristic and research ties for the next three years, through the so-called ‘Japan Plan 2016-2019’. The Government presented the agreement, approved last 25^th of October, on Monday and explained that it aims at boosting business promotion, investment attraction, tourism cooperation, student mobility and cultural and gastronomic exchange. While the presentation of the Plan was taking place on Monday morning in Barcelona, a mission organised by the Port of Barcelona and Acció, the Catalan Public competitiveness and internationalisation agency, was in Panama trying to improve the trade relationship with the Central America region. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, and the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, accompanied fifty Catalan companies on their visit to Panama and Cuba, where they held 300 meetings with local businesses.  

A total of 2.7 million cruise travellers will have passed through the Port of Barcelona by the end of 2016, a figure that represents an increase of about 9-10% over 2015 and marks a new record. This was announced on Monday by the president of the Port of Barcelona, ??Sixte Cambra, who explained that until now the record stood at 2.6 million cruise passengers and was achieved in 2011. It is estimated that cruises this year will generate a turnover of almost €1,000 million, while the contribution to the Catalan GDP could reach €500 million. According to Cambra, these good results are primarily due “to the boost of activity as a home port, which grew 10% compared to last year”. 

The Port of Barcelona continues to break records. During the first half of 2016, the number of containers handled, a reliable indicator of economic activity, exceeded one million, the best figure ever registered for a six-month period. This represents a growth of 13% in comparison to the same period last year, according to Port de Barcelona’s President, Sixte Cambra. Freight traffic in the Port of Barcelona made up a total of 24.2 million tonnes, which is 4% more than the same period last year and the amount of exports grew by 54% in comparison to the record figure registered in 2008. According to Cambra, these figures “consolidate the recovery of freight traffic and accelerate the figures of the Port of Barcelona’s activity”.

The largest cruise ship in the whole world, the ‘Harmony of the Seas’, has set sail in the Mediterranean from the Port of Barcelona. Indeed, the Royal Caribbean cruise company has selected the Catalan capital as the base for its Mediterranean cruise ships. Thus, Barcelona is now the only city in the world to have served as a turnaround port for Royal Caribbean’s three biggest ships. The ‘Harmony of the Seas’ is gargantuan: a capacity of 9,000 people, weighing more than 200,000 tons, and offering access to two surf simulators, a natural park and the highest slide possible. This all helps to contribute to the success of the Port of Barcelona: this 2016, the record from 2011 is expected to be equalled, with 2.6 million passengers welcomed at the Port, through 750 stopovers from the 40 cruise companies that operate at the infrastructure. Indeed, 30 million euros are forecast to be added to the economy of the Catalan capital. 

Ferrari Land, the international brand’s first theme park in Europe, is closer to its opening in Vila-Seca, a town in the southern Catalan region of Tarragona. Over the next few weeks the operators will carry out the urbanisation of 60,000 square metres of the amusement resort, located next to the Port Aventura theme park. Ferrari Land represented a €100 million investment and will include simulators, shops, restaurants, as well as replicas of Italian buildings. However, one of its main attractions will be ‘Cavallino Rampante’, Europe’s tallest rollercoaster, reaching 112 metres high. The attraction should allow visitors to feel the acceleration experienced by a F1 driver, reaching 180 km/h in 5 seconds.Ferrari Land is set to increase by 20% the number of visitors to Port Aventura, which will break all records achieved since it opened in May 1995.

The port of Palamós on the Costa Brava will receive more luxury cruises this season, but will also lose almost 20,000 passengers compared to 2015. Although the number of cruise liners stopping at the Catalan coastal town will not vary substantially, there will be a decline in the number of passengers due to the fact that the two cruise ships with the greatest capacity, the Thomson Dream and the Island Escape, will not dock this season. The former has changed its route to the Caribbean, while the latter has been sent to the scrapyard. The president of Ports of Catalonia, Ricard Font, says that this decline is not a “major concern” because it responds to “objective reasons” and that the port of Palamós is still highly valued. Proof of this, he points out, is that 59% of the companies that will dock from now until November are luxury cruise liners that carry passengers coming to spend three times more money than conventional cruise travellers. In 2016 the port will also open the maritime station, which has been remodelled and is almost ready for when Palamós becomes an external border within the Schengen zone.

Barcelona’s Port registered an 8% growth in container traffic this March in comparison to the same period last year, reaching 493,000 TEUs (one TEU = one 20ft container). Both exports and imports saw a growth of more than 5%, along with an increase in container cargo coastal trade. All in all, 11.1 million tons of merchandise were registered from January to March of 2016. This is also represented by an increase both in liquid and solid merchandise in bulk. Meanwhile, the Barcelona El Prat airport experienced a rise in passengers in the first trimester of 2016, marking 16.1% more than the same period of the previous year, at a total of 8.5 million people. Along with this, both the Girona-Costa Brava airport and Reus airport, located in the Girona and Tarragona provinces respectively, witnessed an augmentation in traffic in the month of March. 

After more than 10 years of negotiations between the Catalan government and the Spanish Ministry for Transport and many changes on the route, the railway connection to Barcelona’s port will be a reality in two years’ time. The final project will cost €104 million and will be 50% funded by Port de Barcelona and the Spanish Ministry for Transport. The railway connection to Barcelona’s Port has been long-awaited by the Catalan government, as 13% of the containers and 30% of the cars that pass through the port are transported by train. The acceleration of this connection emphasises the need to start the construction of the Mediterranean corridor, one of the government’s main goals in terms of infrastructure, which is set to transport freight and passengers non-stop from Gibraltar to Central Europe.

11 MEPs from different parties, amongst them Catalan liberal party CDC MEP Ramon Tremosa, have sent a parliamentary question to the EC’s vice president, Federica Mogherini, regarding the repeated use of the Spanish port of Ceuta by Russian military ships. According to Ceuta’s local press, this port, located in North Africa, was used by Russia’s fleet at least 57 times between 2011 and 2015 along the ships’ route towards the Black Sea. The fleet included frigates, destroyers and attack submarines. The use of this port by Russian ships coincided with the European fines against Moscow due to its participation through third parties in the civil conflict in Ukraine. Thus, MEPs have asked Mogherini to clarify whether this support from the Spanish authorities contravened ­­­­the European fines and why.

More than 723,500 vehicles were transported through Port de Barcelona during the first ten months of the year, 19% more than in the same period last year. Most of them, 374,554, were exports, although what grew the most from January to September were vehicle imports (+41%). Freight traffic during the first ten months of the year was 3% higher than in the same period last year, reaching 1.6 TEU, the transport unit which is equal to a 20-foot container. Goods exports were higher than imports and China and the USA topped the ranking of destination markets. Finally, from January to October Port de Barcelona received 3.3 million passengers, which is 6% more than the same period last year. 2.2 million of these were cruise liner passengers.

From January to September this year, Barcelona's port transported 100,666 UTI, the transport unit which equals a lorry, a platform or a trailer. The highest increase was registered in those services connecting the Catalan capital with Italian destinations, in particular Genoa, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Savona and Porto Torres. The rest of the goods transportation corresponded to short sea shippings, which are the connections between Barcelona and the North of Africa, mainly Tangier. Exports from January to September were higher than imports, and grew by 9% in comparison to the same period last year.Vehicle transportation continued to grow and registered 18% growth in the first nine months of the year, and 10,000 lorries have been diverted from road to maritime routes, according to data published this Thursday by Port de Barcelona for January to September.

From the 14^th to the 18^th of October, Barcelona will host a new edition of the International Boat Show. 260 exhibitors from all over the world will present their wares in sports and recreational boats, distributed throughout the 50,000-square metre exhibition, with the biggest being displayed afloat and the floor hosting smaller boats and components. The Fair's President, Luis Conde, forecasts a "spectacular edition" this year, as the nautical sector "is recovering, in line with the rest of the economy". In fact, the number of boats registered this year has increased by 10%. According to Conde, the Barcelona International Boat Show "is the main platform of the nautical sector in Spain" and a must in any boat lover's agenda.

Catalan exports grew 7.4% in July and exceeded the €6,000 million barrier for the first time. The total figure was €6,086.30 million and the 4 regions in Catalonia (Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona and Lleida), all obtained positive results, according to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Sales increased in the leading export sectors, which involve chemical, automotive and capital goods, with the automotive sector recording the highest increase, up 18.2% compared to last July. Since the beginning of this year, every month has recorded the best performance in export volume and if this trend keeps up, 2015 will be a  record year. In Spain as a whole, exports in July were worth 148,000 million euros, the best month ever recorded.