The new Tanger Med port
Spain's two south coast ports of Málaga and Algeciras Bay face new competition. The former reported a 28.3% drop in traffic in the first five months of this year, while the latter saw a decline of 2.04%.
Both are transhipment hubs, whose longer term viability has been put into doubt through the opening of Tanger-Med, where rock bottom labour rates are proving highly tempting to shipping lines.
In contrast, the two main Spanish import-export hubs of Valencia and Barcelona continue to report growth. While the latter reported a modest 3.26% increase in the year to the end of May, the former boosted traffic by 8.23% to 1.34m teu.
Astonishingly, this is just 50,000 teu fewer than Algeciras handled. APM Terminals shows absolutely no signs of pulling out of the concession it operates at Algeciras. Having noted in which direction the wind was blowing some years ago, Algeciras adopted a strategy of diversifying traffic and it is now looking at further diversification through the arrival of Hanjin as terminal operator in 2010. Up to now, APM was solely dedicated to handling Maersk traffic, but now it appears to be looking at attracting other third-party business.
