BEST is a strategic investment in the Western Mediterranean for Hutchison Port Holding (HPH). The choice of Barcelona is due to its strategic location in a stable, prosperous area, the fact that it has a significant level of foreign investment, as well as an important basis of local traffic, and a great potential to expand its hinterland to the rest of Spain, southern Europe and the Western Mediterranean. Besides, the strong commitment of the Barcelona Port Authority to the project to expand and construct a new container terminal, and the productivity of the local port stevedoring were other factors that made HPH choose Barcelona as its port in the Mediterranean to locate the group’s semi-automatic terminal.
The investments made in BEST to provide it with the most modern technology and the most advanced equipment has enabled the terminal to have one of the greatest productivities in the world.
Now the second phase of the expansion of BEST is being carried out, which entails making 500 more metres of dock available and 9 more storage blocks, which means increasing the capacity of the terminal by 50%.
Once this second phase is completed, BEST will have 1,500 metres of dock and 11 gantry cranes, all of them able to operate the largest container ships in the world currently on the seas.
These features make the terminal unique in the Mediterranean region, as it will enable us to operate up to three large ships simultaneously.
Another of the main aims of BEST is to expand the hinterland of the Port of Barcelona, by offering multimodal solutions and rail connections to its customers. For this purpose we wish to transfer the efficiency obtained at BEST to the whole logistics chain, thereby improving the competitiveness of the final customer.
Additionally, BEST and HPH strongly believe in the protection of the environment and rail transport is one of the most sustainable means of transport with the least impact on our environment. Our investment is in line with European Union Spanish Government policies that aim to enhance and promote intermodal transport.
Currently from BEST we offer multimodal connections with the main cities and areas on the Mainland, such as Madrid, Navarra, Burgos, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Valencia and Portugal, as well as central and southern France, connecting with Perpignan, Lyon, Toulouse, Paris, Bordeaux and Lille.
Recently, we have increased the rail service with Madrid, by expanding the frequency with daily departures. This is due to the rise in demand by the main importers in the central region, many of whom have changed their port of entry for the Port of Barcelona owing to the arrival to our terminal since the month of February of the services with the lowest transit time between Asia and Europa.
The new rail access to the Port of Barcelona will enable BEST to improve the quality of its services to its customers, who are demanding this in order to expand their area of influence and maintain the growth trend in railroad volume.
The Port of Barcelona has connections to the main road and rail networks on the Mainland and the rest of Europe, as well as a network of maritime connections to the most important ports in the world.
Additionally, alongside the Port of Barcelona is the Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL), which hosts the facilities of the main distribution centres of importers and exporters and logistics operators. A prominent role is also played by the closeness of the terminal to Barcelona-El Prat Airport.
All these elements provide Barcelona with a great potential to become, not only the main port of incoming goods for the European market, but also the new logistics hub in the Western Mediterranean.
