The Port of Tarragona begins the year with a growth of 9.1%

Crude oil, paper pulp, vehicles, construction materials and iron and steel products show the best figures

The Port of Tarragona recorded a growth of 9.1% this past January, exceeding 3 million tons handled (3.08 Mt), an excellent figure and the fourth best January ever for the port, in terms of tons handled, and the best in the past six years.

It we break down these figures, we can highlight bulk liquid traffic, which grew 14% (1.9Mt) this January with respect to the same period last year. For their part, bulk solids fell by 0.8%, as a result of a drop in the amount of coal handled.

General conventional cargo continued to perform well, with 191,108 tons handled by the port in January, a growth of 14.2%. Iron and steel products, construction materials, paper, paper pulp and vehicles, among others, were the basis of the positive evolution in general conventional cargo.

Growth in energy products

Looking at the data by types of cargo, the Port of Tarragona recorded a growth of 10.4% (2.1Mt) in January, particularly in petroleum crude (+53.2%), which exceeded a million tons per month for the first time (1.1Mt), and other petroleum products, up 22.3% at 310,000 tons.

Tarragona’s port infrastructure also saw an increase in chemical products (18.8%), with 160,000 tons handled. Along the same lines, the iron and steel sector (+54.1%), with common salt of particular note (+39.4%), non-metallic minerals (+32.5%) and construction materials (+49.8%) also performed very well during the first month of 2018. With regard to agri-food products, the figures were similar to the same period in 2017 (-1.1%) at 391,950 tons, although there was an increase in cereals and flours (12.4%), at 250,055 tons.

The figures for paper and paper pulp also show a very positive performance in that traffic, with an increase of 45.2% (41,960 t). January also saw an increase in the number of vehicles (+14.5%), with a total of 18,231 units handled by the port.

Considerable activity in lorry movements

Given the excellent figures achieved by the Port of Tarragona this January, we can also highlight the considerable movement of lorries. The figure recorded for all types of vehicles was 217,560 units, compared to 223,032 in 2017 (-2.5%). This decrease was due to a lower movement of cars, probably due to the disappearance of the project cargo works. In terms of lorries, there was an increase of 14.2% with 81,465 lorry movements. This figure was a new record for the Port of Tarragona.