Between 6 and 16 April, the docks of the port area have assumed the loading and unloading operations of 10 vessels detained in the Suez Canal with complete normality

Aurelio Martínez, president of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV) has highlighted “the coordination of the professionals and actors of the port community to take on this additional workload”

He assures that the measures implemented in the Contingency Plan after the meeting of the Guarantee Mark have shown the “effectiveness and efficiency of the companies operating in the Port”

The docks of Valenciaport recover their normal rhythm of activity after taking on all the ships delayed in their operations due to the Suez Canal incident

A total of 32,313 export (loading) and import (unloading) containers arrived from 10 ships. These have been the additional movements managed by Valenciaport’s docks from ships held up by the blockade of the Suez Canal. This operation was carried out between 6 and 16 April. A figure that adds to the daily activity that the port community carries out in Valenciaport and which has been assumed with absolute normality.  The first of these ships, the MSC Le Havre, berthed at the CSP terminal on Tuesday 6 April to handle 2,300 TEU movements (standard 20-foot container). The last of these arrived last Friday, the Jebel Ali, of the Hapag Lloyd shipping company, which handled 4,500 containers.

The president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Aurelio Martínez, highlighted “the work of the port community in taking on this additional workload to their day-to-day work, an example of the capacity and efficiency with which the companies and professionals who make Valenciaport a strategic port and a reference point in the Mediterranean operate”. In this sense, the president of the PAV has valued “the measures adopted by the port community in the meeting of the Guarantee Mark which established a Contingency Plan that has worked perfectly and has once again demonstrated the capacity to take on this type of contingency”.

“We have a great port at the service of the business fabric and always ready to respond to their import demands and, especially for export, so that sectors such as the tile industry, which are at a very dynamic moment of foreign sales to countries in the Middle East and the Far East, can continue to sell their products and generate qualified employment and wealth, which is essential for economic recovery”, Aurelio Martínez indicated.

In this regard, it should be noted that the latest data on freight traffic for the month of March reflect an increase of 12.96% in freight traffic and an increase of 9.22% in the movement of containers through the docks of Valenciaport. Particularly noteworthy are the movements of cargo containers, which grew by 24.28% in March, and which have now accumulated eight consecutive months of positive figures. 

Commitment of the port community

Specifically, in the coordination meeting of the Marca de Garantía, where 150 port companies are present, a Contingency Plan was established to take on this additional cargo of ships coming from the blockade of the Suez Canal. Among the measures that were put in place were the extension of the timetables of CSP Iberian Terminal Valencia and MSC Terminal Valencia, the management of export containers by the freight forwarding companies, the coordination of empty containers so that they are in the terminal yards for the shortest possible time, and the planning of the transport sector’s working day, among others.

It is also worth highlighting the organisation and diversification of port calls by shipping lines in the different ports of the Mediterranean, to dose and speed up activity in the port areas and make up for the time lost by vessels that were detained.