The Port of Tarragona increased the amount of cargo it handled by 4.9 % in the first 7 months of the year

Agri-food products showing signs of recovery

The accumulated amount of cargo handled by the Port of Tarragona in the past seven months increased by 4.9% compared to the same period in 2018. This is a figure only surpassed in three of the last 15 years, as we have to go back to 2012, 2008 and 2007 to find better results.

In July, the Port of Tarragona handled nearly 2.45 million tons of cargo, almost equalling the same month last year (2.5 million tons). The basis of the strength in activity, from the point of view of the accumulated figure for cargo between January and July this year, is the performance of bulk liquids, which reached a total of 12.75 million tons (Mt), only slightly less than in 2017 (12.83 Mt) and 2015 (12.93 Mt). Within this cargo group, crude oil at 5.79 Mt recorded its highest ever result for a January-July period, only closely matched by the accumulated result from January-July 2007 at 5.54 Mt.

These positive results for the seven first months of the year were also helped by the good figures for petroleum energy gases at 1.190 thousand tons (mt), which surpassed the previous 2018 record of 933 thousand tons, and benzine at 761 thousand tons accumulated from January to July, surpassing the 2009 figure of 516 mt.

Recovery in Agri-food

In the bulk solids category, agri-foods have begun to recover with a growth of 43.5% compared to July 2018. In July last year the figure was 248 thousand tons in cereals, animal feed and flours; this July it reached 356 thousand tons.

This positive trend can also be seen in the accumulated figure for the first seven months of the year, 2.80 million tons, almost equal to that for the previous year (2.83 million tons). This is the second best figure in the series and is only surpassed by the accumulated traffic from January to July 2008. This recovery is due to the positive performance of cereals, animal feed and flours, with an accumulated total of 1.92 million tons handled between January and July this year, very close to the accumulated figure of 2.06 million tons for January-July 2018.

Finally, we can also highlight the activity in salt cargos which, at 116 thousand tons handled last month, reached the highest figure in the last 15 years, according to the existing records, and the increase of 13.3% in the number of vehicles handled as cargo, which grew from 116,640 vehicles during January-July 2018 to 132,180 in the first seven months of 2019.