The Spanish port of Valencia (pictured) has overtaken the port of Barcelona in terms of total vehicle numbers handled, according to Spain’s National Ports Authority (Puertos del Estado).
Last year, Valencia port’s vehicle terminals, which include those at nearby Sagunto and Gandia ports, handled more than 818,000 vehicles – up 3% on the previous year. Barcelona, meanwhile, experienced a corresponding 3% drop to just over 809,000.
Overall, Spain’s vehicle handling ports processed around 3.4m units in 2018, show the figures – a 2.5% decrease that Puertos del Estado attributes to a market downturn in importing countries.
[mpu_ad]Valencia was the only one of Spain’s three leading vehicle handling ports to post an uptick in traffic last year. It had a particularly strong December with 14% for the month, equating to more than 67,600 units and the most to be handled at any domestic port.
In contrast, the port of Barcelona reported a 12% decrease in December, handling just over 60,600 units. Over the year as a whole, Barcelona handled 809,158 vehicles.
Santander was also down, posting a 1.8% decrease to just over 488,000 vehicles last year.
Of the other three big automotive handling ports in mainland Spain, only Pasajes saw an increase in traffic last year, where volumes rose by 8.5% to 254,670 units.
Vigo reported a drop of almost 7% to just over 451,000 units, while Tarragona suffered a 2.7% decline to end up just short of 195,000 units.
For further details of vehicle handling activity at the terminals in Europe see our annual survey in the next edition of Finished Vehicle Logistics magazine, published at the beginning of April.
