Declining work for Spanish dock workers

Dramatic drops in traffic at Valencia at the end of 2008 have continued into 2009, leaving some 400 dockworkers with practically no work to do.

Hardest hit has been imported container traffic, although the shut down of production at the neighbouring Ford car plant has also negatively impacted on new vehicles traffic.

However, a short-term improvement in traffic is anticipated thanks to increased transhipment traffic being handled by MSC, as well as new calls by Maersk, Hanjin, UASC and the New World Alliance.