The Port of Tarragona, a case of success in the Mediterranean

The Port of Tarragona was presented as a case of success in the Mediterranean at the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)-Suez Canal Conference on Maritime Transport and Logistics held on 8 and 9 May in Ismailia - Suez Canal, Egypt.

The conference brought together more than 300 participants, among which were the presidents of various Mediterranean port authorities, representatives from international organisations and financial institutions and experts in port logistics from different countries, both from the private and public sectors. The prime objective of the conference was to share the good practices and examples of success in the promotion of intermodality and connectivity in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The president of the Tarragona infrastructure, Josep Andreu, presented the case of the Port of Tarragona and its firm commitment to intermodality, together with the ports of Marseilles and Genova.

Following the inaugural conference given by the Egyptian Prime Minister, the Italian Deputy Minister of Transport, the Egyptian Minister of Transport and the President of the State Ports Authority, it was the turn of the port authorities from the different countries. Josep Andreu gave an initial introduction to the Spanish state port system and its connectivity with the Mediterranean. He emphasised the advantages of the future Mediterranean Corridor and the international potential that will be achieved by the Spanish ports connected to that logistics axis.

He also highlighted the considerable public/private investment effort being made in infrastructure with the aim of strengthening connectivity through intermodality and, in particular, the intermodal rail stations and rail ports spread across the territory. Finally, he emphasised the privileged geostrategic location of the Mediterranean ports, near one of the world’s major shipping routes – Asia-Middle East-Europe– in which the Suez Canal plays a key role.

Next he spoke of the specific case of the Port of Tarragona, giving its main features and data, with the cargo movement for 2017 (34 Mt), the strategic growth lines, and the major evolution in recent years in terms of investment in improving port infrastructure connectivity.

The Port of Tarragona’s traffic with North Africa was 3.6 Mt in 2017, mainly in petroleum-derived products. Andreu also highlighted one of the cargos that is seeing the greatest growth in the Port of Tarragona, that of livestock, which, after six years, has now reached over one million animals. The main countries with which it operates this kind of traffic are Turkey, Libya, Lebanon, Algeria and Egypt itself.

Finally, Josep Andreu spoke of the strong commitment of the Port of Tarragona to intermodality and of the characteristics and advantages of the new ‘La Boella’ intermodal terminal that has a mixed gauge (IUR and Iberian) on its four lines and can takes trains up to 750 m long. The services of this rail-port terminal mean that any container or general cargo placed in the Port of Tarragona can reach any port in the world, and vice-versa for subsequent distribution to the end-customer in Europe. According to Andreu, this commitment to intermodality will help the Port of Tarragona grow in efficiency and competitiveness

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