The goal is to become a euro regional hub for southern Europe and to compete with Rotterdam and Hamburg.

The Port de Barcelona has presented its III Strategic Plan covering the period 2015-2020. The objective has set out by the Port is to position itself as the centre of distribution in the Mediterranean Euro-region and compete with ports in the north of Europe, like Rotterdam or Hamburg.

By 2020 the Port wants to be handling 70 million tonnes of cargo and 3 million TEUs -a unit of measurement for container volume. To make this possible, 50% of goods must either come from or have Catalonia as their destination, meaning that the Port needs to widen its catchment area to 1,200 kilometres at some points and to reach the heartlands of the Peninsula or southern France.

In addition, port officials hope to handle 1.2 million vehicles and 14 million tons of hydro carbonates/oils. Furthermore, the port also wants to increase cruise passenger traffic to 3 million visitors each year.

Overall balance shows increases on main indicators

During 2014 the total volume of cargo handling at the Port of Barcelona  registered an increase of 9%, to stand at 46.3 million tonnes. In the same line, container traffic, one of the port’s strategic areas, grew by 10% to stand at 1.9 million TEUs (equivalent to units measuring 20ft).

With regard to passengers from cruise ships, Barcelona is still the top port in Europe and the Mediterranean, and fourth in the world.

Source: Barcelona City Council
Photo: Ivan MIinaric/ flickr