The Port of Valencia’s traffic indicators for the month of August once again served as an accurate thermometer for the state of global trade, the turmoil in the markets for fuel, solid bulk (cereals), liquid bulk (Liquefied Natural Gas and oil), as well as containers (import/export of manufactured goods), and tourism. The terminals at Valenciaport saw new declines in transshipment traffic in August, but they also saw historic highs for import containers, solid and liquid bulk, and cruise passengers.
According to information gathered by the Statistical Bulletin of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Valenciaport achieved two milestones in the month of August.
The numbers support the decline in imports, which this month left 86,463 containers at Valenciaport’s docks unloaded, which is 21.45% higher than in August 2021, and the full return of the cruise industry, which had 103,385 passengers arrive this month. Containers fell by 1.61%, and overall traffic fell by 5.24%. Of these, the number of full containers decreased by 5.19%, mostly because fewer were used for exports (-2.71%) and transit (-15.9%). However, empty containers increased by 9.78% while import containers increased by 21.45%.
With a growth of 9.77% from January to August, the cumulative data again demonstrates the import containers’ vitality. The port enclosures are affected by the volatility and ups and downs in global trade in a year highlighted by geopolitical complexity. So, during the first eight months of the year, 55.48 million tonnes of goods—a decline of 2.74%—have been transported through Valenciaport’s ports, according to information from the PAV’s Statistical Bulletin. Despite an increase in unloading containers, the total number of containers between January and August was 3,545,220, a reduction of 6.22%.
Full TEUs (standard 20-foot containers, or 6.1-meter-long containers) only used for cargo saw a decline of 6.23%. Transit container leakage has decreased by more than 220,000 units, or 13.1%, between January and August of this year compared to the same period in 2021, while empty containers have decreased by 2.54%.
Because of diseconomies of scale on some peak days, shipping lines are forced to hunt for alternative ports in the western Mediterranean to tranship these containers, indicating that the Port of Valencia is at or above 80% of capacity. In other words, Valencia’s Port is getting too small.
In addition, using September 2021 through August 2022 as a baseline, the results reveal that the overall amount of products was more than 83.3 million tonnes, a decrease of 3.07%. 5,369,221 containers were used, a 6.3% reduction. This highlights the significance of purchases of goods and services for both consumers who have access to more products and for Spanish companies to access components and machinery to continue production. Of these, the number of import containers reached 890,291 TEUs, an increase of 12.88% compared to the same period the previous year, and an all-time record.
The number of TEUs used for imports increased, but the number of TEUs used for exports decreased, and the number of TEUs used for transshipment decreased.
From the statistics in the PAV’s Statistical Bulletin, it is clear that all the signs point to the Spanish domestic market’s resilience to being overwhelmed by the global economic pessimism already apparent in several industries and regions.
The PAV records also demonstrate the improvement in passenger transportation following some challenging years worsened by the COVID-19 epidemic. Between January and August of this year, there were 899,870 passengers at the Valenciaport piers, a 143% increase. More than a third of these, or 352,646 people, are cruise passengers, a number that is comparable to that seen prior to the epidemic. The remaining 547,224 people are Balearic Islands travelers.
103,385 passengers docked in Valencia in total in August, breaking the previous record for the number of tourists arriving in the city in a single month. This achievement is the result of the shipping companies’ dedication to a safe destination that is dedicated to experiences and excursions in Valencia and the rest of the province.
The number of commodities transported by ships carrying roll-on/roll-off cargo, such as lorries or automobiles, increased by 0.85% and reached 8,805,262 tonnes during the first eight months of the year. Intermodal Transport Units (ITU) rose in number by 7.14%.
384,880 vehicles were handled from Valenciaport terminals in the first eight months of the year, an increase of 17.66% from the corresponding period in 2021. Italy, Belgium, and Turkey account for 50% of the activities in this vehicle traffic.
With a total of 6,226,143 tonnes mobilized, or 21.81% higher than in January-August 2021, the United States continues to lead trade ties with Valenciaport in terms of countries and total freight flow. It is important to draw attention to the fact that imports have doubled as a result of the increased amount of natural gas coming from the North American nation. Italy came in second with 5,166,903 tonnes, maintaining its position from the prior year.
China mobilized 4,334,492 tonnes, a decrease of 6.33%, leaving the transalpine nation ahead of the Asian superpower. The countries with the fastest growth rates are the Netherlands (+35.05%), Romania (+22.12%), Nigeria (+20.66%), and the United Kingdom (+64.22%).
China has handled 381,451 TEU containers with import/export goods, which represents a decline of 6.18% from the first eight months of the previous year. The United States is in second place after China with 351,001 containers (-3.49%), followed by Turkey with 175,138 (-17%). The United Kingdom (+60%), Vietnam (+32.43%), and Greece (+15.78%) had the highest growth rates.
