Barcelona in the black

José Alberto Carbonell, General Manager, and Mercè Conesa, President of the Port of Barcelona (Photo Port of Barcelona).

Despite the impact of the pandemic, the Port of Barcelona closed its FY 2020 in the black with a result of EUR 17 million. The port generated a turnover of EUR 139 million over the year, down 20% from 2019’s level of EUR 172 million. This decrease is due mainly to the decline in total traffic, which led to a 25% reduction in fees for use.

Freight traffic experienced a sharp fall, particularly in April and May. However, this segment recovered little by little to end the year with double-digit increases both in total traffic, up 23% in December, and containers, up nearly 25%.  Nonetheless, total traffic at the port in 2020 saw a 11.9% decrease to 59.5 million t.

Almost 3 million teu were handled, down 11% year on year. Movements of liquid bulk in 2020 amounted to 12.9 million t, falling 20% year on year. Dry bulk closed the year with movements in excess of 4 million t, a figure similar to that of 2019.

New car traffic, one of the segments most affected by the uncertainty and economic crisis arising from the pandemic, plummeted in 2020 (- 38%), with a total of 480,000 units moved.

Conventional cargo, which mostly includes ro-ro traffic, fell 16% to 347,000 itu. In this segment, itu transported by the motorways of the sea decreased only 2% (150,000 itu).

2020 closed with around 265,000 containers entering or leaving the port precinct by rail, which represents a year-on-year increase of 6% and pushes the rail's share of containers to a new record of 15%.

In all, 187,466 vehicles were transported by rail, marking another record market share of 42%. This mode of transport cut C02 emissions by 51,000 t in 2020, and removed 131,000 trucks from the roads. (cd)

www.portdebarcelona.cat/resultats2020