Spanish container trade went up by 4.8% in September 2021

Six months have passed since our last publication on the Spanish import, export and cabotage traffic and since then traffic has only gone up.  The statistics for September 2021, as published earlier this month by Puertos del Estado indicate that Spain’s container trade has increased significantly this year and reached a new monthly record of 742 thousand TEU, being 18.1% more than last year.

Transhipment traffic went down in all three major ports, especially in Barcelona and Valencia.

The following table shows the details for Algeciras, Barcelona, and Valencia, that together handle 80% of Spain’s container traffic, the other ports and Spain.

Source: Data from Puertos del Estado elaborated by CLAUpartners consulting

When we compare the COVID-19 crisis with the financial crisis that started in September 2008, we see a much stronger recovery, as is clearly illustrated by the following graph showing the index for import, export and cabotage traffic for all Spanish ports, setting the index of the volume handled at 100 at the start of the period.

After a strong growth in March 2021, the container traffic (excl. transhipment) kept growing till last month and reached an index value of 115, which is 15% more traffic when compared to last year’s March when the country went into lockdown.

Comparing the first three quarters of this year with those of the two previous years, shows that all major ports have handled more import / export / cabotage traffic in 2021 than in 2019 despite losses during 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis. However, both Algeciras and Valencia lost some transhipment traffic while Barcelona saw a return of the transhipment volume it lost in 2020.

Source: Data from Puertos del Estado elaborated by CLAUpartners consulting

After a strong growth in March 2021, the container traffic (excl. transhipment) kept growing till last month and reached an index value of 115, which is 15% more traffic when compared to last year’s March when the country went into lockdown.

Comparing the first three quarters of this year with those of the two previous years, shows that all major ports have handled more import / export / cabotage traffic in 2021 than in 2019 despite losses during 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis. However, both Algeciras and Valencia lost some transhipment traffic while Barcelona saw a return of the transhipment volume it lost in 2020.

Source: Data from Puertos del Estado elaborated by CLAUpartners consulting

Let’s see what the coming months will bring. With inflation rising due to higher energy costs and higher retail costs because of higher transportation costs, the economy might cool down and this might impact the container trade.

For more details, please contact me at consulting@claupartners.com