The Port of Tarragona is promoting itself as a regional hub for bulk liquids in the first edition of the Hub Day Workshop

The day workshop, organised by the Port, together with its liquid storage (chemical and petrochemical) terminals and the ChemMed cluster, was inaugurated by the chairman of the Port, Josep Andreu, and the chairman of the State Ports, José Llorca

POn Thursday and Friday, participants from various parts of Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France took part in the first edition of the Hub Day Workshop, a day workshop organised by the Port of Tarragona, with the aim of holding a meeting with the different players from the sector to look for areas for improving and promoting the Mediterranean as a logistics platform in southern Europe and as an alternative gateway to the ARA zone (the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp).

The aim of this meeting is to respond to the current market trend. The Port of Tarragona has observed that the flows from the Middle East enter Europe through the ports of the ARA zone. In recent years, the major international hubs have grown exponentially and the centralisation of the goods traffic in Northern Europe is harming the Mediterranean region.

The workshop has served to bring together the views, opinions and needs of the different players in the market in order to improve the positioning, infrastructure and services of the Port of Tarragona with the aim of improving competitiveness compared with the ports of Northern Europe.

After the case for Tarragona was presented on Thursday in the Port’s Conference Room, this Friday the day workshop properly speaking was held at the Teatret del Serrallo. The chairman of the Port, Josep Andreu, and the chairman of the State Ports, José Llorca were in charge of inaugurating this session.

Josep Andreu talked about the bulk liquid storage terminals of the Port of Tarragona and the Moll de la Química dock, which, three years after their extension, which doubled their surface area, is now practically fully occupied. The current independent storage capacity is around 800,000 m³, and as Andreu explained, the "the intention is to double this figure in the next few years, allowing the storage of large amounts of various liquid products with the maximum guarantees of security, regardless of whether they are petroleum, hydrocarbons or chemicals ".

For his part, the chairman of the State Ports, José Llorca, talked about the need for the Mediterranean corridor, with the European gauge track, to become a reality in order to provide more competitiveness for the Port of Tarragona, and the work that is being carried out by the Spanish government to ensure this will become a reality within a few years.

The Hub Day Workshop was held this year for the first time, but was envisaged with the aim of establishing itself as an essential annual event that facilitates dialogue and cooperation in the Mediterranean region, and, at the same time, showcases the advances in storage of petroleum and chemical products.