WorldCargo News Online

SPAIN: PORT DEVELOPMENT
WorldCargo
news
Port investments gathering pace
International interest in Spain’s
Mederranean ports has intensified, with
Dubai Ports World’s decision to join a
consortium to bid for Barcelona’s future
container terminal at the Prat Wharf that
is aimed at doubling the port’s space for
container handling when it opens in January
2008.The rail-connected terminal will
have a total quay length of 1500m with a
depth of 16.5m alongside.
“Our priority, when considering bidders,
is that new traffic is brought to Barcelona,”
said Joaquim Coello, chairman
of the port authority (APB). He adds that
70% of the evaluation procedure on the
offers will to be based upon the promise
to bring new traffic to the port.
“Container traffic from the Far East
will be the principal generator of new
traffic at the port, Coello believes.“We
have had 50% growth rate in trade from
China and overall Asian container traffic
is growing by 20%.”
In the battle to win the concession to
operate the port’s future 93-hectare container
terminal,APB has confirmed that
DP World had made a joint bid with
CMA-CGM. Effectively this is the
PortSynergy grouping of P&O Ports and
CMA-CGM, although Spain’s Naviera
del Odiel is also understood to be involved
in the biding with them.
Two other bids have been received -
from the port’s existing container terminal
operators, TCB (Terminal de
Contenidors de Barcelona) and Grupo
Mestre’s Terminal de Catalunya (Tercat).
As previously reported in WorldCargo
News, Tercat has teamed up with
Hutchinson Port Holdings (HPH) to
make an offer for the tender. HPH has
agreed to purchase 50% of Tercat if their
joint bid for the 30-year Prat Wharf concession
succeeds.
APB says it will announce the winners
of the tender this July. If TCB or
Tercat win the concession, their existing
terminal space will be made free to develop
other traffic types. Barcelona’s Ship
Agent Association, Asociacion de Vaixells
de Barcelona, has long called for APB to
ensure the future diversification of traffic,
especially for short sea trade.The opening
of Prat Wharf is expected to relieve,
in part, the port’s current congestion
problems that have arisen from several
years of solid growth.
New low profile crane
Months before the tender process for Prat
Wharf container terminal had ended,
APV’s chairman Rafael Aznar Garrigues
Muelle Fangos, Prat Dock and other
major schemes follow hard on the heels
of the recently announced expansion
programmes at Algeciras
TCB, the port’s largest container terminal
operator, ordered three superpost-
Panamax cranes from ZPMC.
As previously reported, cranes at Prat
Wharf have to be low profile cranes due
to the proximity of the terminal to the
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city’s international airport. No-one has
built a low profile crane with such an
enormous outreach until now, so these
cranes break new gorund in this respect.
By ordering them now,TCB is making
a statement of intent.The operator is
A constrad
is born!
particularly keen to win the new terminal
that would provide it with a total capacity
of 2.5M TEU/year.
Almost saturated
Last year TCB’s throughput at its Dock
Sud facility increased by 8% to 1.15m
TEU last year. As its current maximum
capacity is 1.3m-1.4m TEU and taking
even a modest 5% annual growth prospects
into account, the terminal will
shortly reach saturation point.
TCB management has been reorganising
existing capacity to avoid congestion
at the terminal. Some sheds
have been knocked down and machinery
has been brought to enable TCB
to keep growing.
To reduce the “footprint” of the EC
stacks, two more 8-high FLTs have been
acquired from Kalmar. The attachments
have double hooks for 1 on 1 lifts, so they
can lift 2 over 7.TCB’s fleet of 51 straddle
carriers already includes 25 1 over 3s.
Fangos soon
Barcelona will face even stiffer competition
for Asian Asian o/d container traffic
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APB’s chairman, Joaquim Coello
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