Fast forward to 2050
These days, many a port is busy making plans for 2025 or 2050. Merce Conesà, president of the port of Barcelona, gave Christian Doepgen her take thereon.
In 2020 Barcelona handled 2.96 million teu; in terms of volumes you retained your 10th place from last year in the European port rankings. What measures did you take to become more resilient?
The port of Barcelona’s greatest strength is our diversification, both of traffic and activities. The 500 companies and 37,000 workers in the port community move all kinds of goods, ranging from containers to solid bulk and including energy products. All of this makes us more resilient to crises. Companies operating in our hinterland also showed their strengths, with exports remaining positive. Our total volumes remain very positive, with growth of more than 7% overall, and with some goods, such as containers, shooting up – the segment grew by 25% in the first quarter this year.
The three axes in the port’s fourth strategic plan, which goes to 2025, included EUR 70 billion in foreign trade. From which global regions do you expect more traffic?
Western economies and their trade are expected to stagnate in the coming years, whilst parts of Asia, including the Far East, will consolidate as global economic and political centres. We also expect increased trade with markets with high demographic potential, such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, which currently enjoy privileged relations with China.
The port is banking on sustainability, with electrification and other projects that benefit the environment. How do sustainable public-private partnerships work?
Sustainability is an overarching concept for us, with the three aspects environment, economic and social – and we also incorporate governance. Our goal is to halve CO2 emissions by 2030 and to become a carbon-neutral port by 2050. To achieve this, we must work together in public-private partnerships – with shipping lines with cleaner ships and zero emissions in port; with terminals with energy savings; and by using renewable energy. SDG 17 – public-private partnerships – is one of the keys to achieving these goals.
You’re planning to concentrate all container activities in the southern part of the port. Why, and how will this process work?
Transferring container traffic to a zone furthest away from urban areas will, on the one hand, minimise the environmental externalities of port activity on population centres, and create new spaces close to the city for more public uses. It will simultaneously help us to optimise port operations and create synergies between the various players in the logistics chain. We’ve just launched a tender for a geotechnical campaign to obtain information on the land’s characteristics in the southern part, which is an essential step towards increasing berths, as well as towards construction of the Catalunya wharf. This first phase of the project is expected to be executed in 20 months.
In 2020, 15% of all containers and 42% of all vehicles passing through the port were hauled by rail. What are your further multimodal plans?
The ultimate goal is to have a double railway network in the port, and a large logistics node allowing all railway movements to be managed. In October we signed the protocol for the construction of new road and rail access routes with our public partners, that is the ministry of public works, the Catalan government, the railway infrastructure manager Adif and the Spanish state port body Puertos del Estado.
You’re conducting an economic impact study, with 140 companies in the hub, to gauge the degree of digitalisation. What is the study’s goal?
In 2010 we completed a previous study on the gateway’s economic impact on the hinterland. Since then we’ve experienced major changes at all levels, particularly in the fields of innovation and digitalisation, and want to assess the current state of play therein. This should help us to assess the qualitative improvement the port has made in recent years, for example the 5G maritime project, which monitors and optimises port berthing operations.
The Port of Barcelona has just opened an Instagram account. What are your expectations regarding this new communication platform?
Our aim for the channel is to foster social interaction with the public and to bring the port closer to Barcelona’s residents, visitors, users and workers. We’d like users to spread their vision of the port by sharing their photos and videos with the hashtag #HistòriesdelPort [#PortStories]. We’ll publicise the 150-year history of our wide-ranging artistic and cultural heritage, and will additionally provide information about the leisure options and entertainment activities on offer in the port’s public area, located in the old Port Vell section of our hub.
