Project Cargo

The Project Cargo traffic is currently one of the commitments our Port is pledged to as part of its strategy of traffic growth and diversification.

The Port of Tarragona is consolidating its position as one of the benchmark ports in the Mediterranean in terms of the export of special cargos, since we have specialists in all types of transport as well as qualified staff that coordinate and organise the operations from source to destination. Due to the fact that Tarragona has the largest chemical Cluster in the South of Europe, this type of cargo benefits from the powerful pool of professionals coming from Tarragona’s auxiliary chemical industry.

The convergence of these factors in Tarragona and the port’s commitment to this type of cargo has led to a significant increase in the volume of projects, with those of three different companies currently in underway.

A wise choice

Tarragona’s port infrastructure has a particularly outstanding advantage in this respect: its excellent climate that allows almost any project to be built in the open air. This means the completed object can be loaded directly from the dockside. The port also offers spacious operational areas and a convenient supply of specialist labour, thanks to the city’s important auxiliary industry and powerful petrochemical cluster, a benchmark for the whole of southern Europe.

In addition, it has extensive operational areas offering 280,000 m2, RO-RO ramps and excellent road and rail accessibility to guarantee the logistics supplies for these projects.

The 16-metre draft does the rest, allowing the docking of vessels specially prepared for transporting large cargos that would be impossible to move with normal container vessels.

The multi-purpose cranes with a load capacity of up 35 tons allows the development, manufacture and loading operations of this type of structure to be carried out almost the whole year, making Tarragona and, in this specific case, our port, the perfect location for these projects.

Extensive operational areas on the docks

Ro-ro ramps

Excellent road and rail accessibility

Efficient services and qualified staff for loading and unloading

16-metre draft

From the Port to the world

The construction and assembly of a project cargo item is highly specialised. In some cases it can take up to twelve months and requires deep draughts, specialist labour and ramps for loading on board ship.

The development and manufacturing process of one of these projects requires some 1,500,000 hours of work and sometimes more than 500 workers.

This boosts employment rates during the construction and materialisation of the project. Most of these jobs are filled by local companies and professionals with the necessary abilities and proven experience thanks to Tarragona’s important auxiliary industry, together with the area’s strong petrochemical cluster, which is a benchmark for the whole of southern Europe.

Such projects are normally metallic structures or boilers for combined cycle power plants, industrial sheds, bridges, footbridges, power station ovens, large gas tanks, chimneys, structures for refineries, petroleum and petrochemical industries, refrigeration equipment, etc.

The main destinations for these projects are North Africa, northern Europe and the United States.