EUROPE

Valencia focuses on strategic priorities

14 years ago

There was little talk of transhipment costs or container investments being frozen by the Port of Valencia at a recent workshop held at the London School of Economics.

Instead, talk was of a focus on new strategic priorities and the vision to become “the best connected port in the Spanish port system”.

Port Strategy reported earlier this month that Rafael Aznar, president of Valencia Port Authority, acknowledged that an agreement regarding a reduction in transhipment costs was key in unlocking future investment in container handling facilities at the port.

The neighboring port of Castellon has reportedly had to reduce tariffs by 70% to slow down the amount of traffic being lost to Valancia – including its largest export trade in ceramics.

But, operators at Valencia have warned that this could swing the other way unless the port makes adjustments to operating costs equating to a loss of nearly 1m teu annually.

Mr Aznar made no reference to the fact that costs could be lowered imminently at the workshop. When PS asked about the issue, he said: “Valencia aims to offer the market a global offering taking everything into account, not just tariffs but also cost of operation. This is one of the challenges for the future and we are working on that.”

According to Mr Aznar, the next objective for the port is to grow its share of traffic flow to Asia – which is presently dominated by ports in Northern Europe. It will do this by “competitive prices”, being “faster and cheaper” and being more “sustainable”.

But making the logistics supply chain shorter “is the challenge” for the port. An adequate rail link to get freight away from the port appears to be an enduring problem for Valencia.

Valencia is “moving towards this”, but it’s slow work. When it comes to post-panamax ships, Valencia is well equipped to handle 18,000 teu now. But with ships unloading 3,000-5,000 teu during one call and the volume increasing, the problem won’t go away.

Valencia needs a rail link into France, Mr Aznar said. This will cut thee to four days off the voyage around Gibraltar and up into Northern Europe for some of the port’s shipping lines.

“We have to be able to respond to the increasing extra capacity of ships to remain competitive,” Mr Aznar concluded.