The company Hutchison Ports celebrated this Thursday the arrival of two new cranes at its semi-automated terminal in the Port of Barcelona, BEST. This incorporation completes the first part of a series of projects that have cost 130 million euros. However, BEST continues its commitment to Barcelona and has announced that it will invest 140 million more in the next two years. The two new cranes arrived last June at the port of Barcelona and have been in operation ever since, joining the 13 cranes already present at this dock. All of them are semi-automated and are part of BEST's project to make the collection and storage of containers in the city more efficient and faster. "In a changing world, it's no longer just about needing more productivity, but other aspects like size or efficiency," said Guillermo Belcastro, CEO of BEST during the presentation and celebration of the commissioning of these cranes.
The event brought together more than half a dozen authorities and company representatives who visited the cranes during the morning, two large constructions that complete part of BEST's project in the Port of Barcelona. Participants included the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente; the Minister of Business and Labor, Miquel Sàmper; the Secretary General of Air and Maritime Transport, Benito Núñez; the mayor of El Prat de Llobregat, Alba Bou; the fourth deputy mayor of the Area of Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion and Tourism of the Barcelona City Council, Jordi Valls; the general director of Transport and Sustainable Mobility of the Government of Navarra, Berta Miranda; the general director of Hutchison Port Holdings Europe, Clemence Cheng; and the president of the Port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell.
Since the beginning of the creation of this terminal until the commissioning of these new cranes, there has been an investment of 130 million euros. However, with this incorporation, the project is not finished, as there is an intention to add three more cranes by 2028 and six more storage blocks by the end of 2027. In total, once the entire project is completed, an additional 140 million will be added to this initial investment. Although it seems like a high investment, BEST maintains that it could provide an added value of about 2,100 million euros. Specifically, the new cranes have been manufactured in China and are called Ship-to-Shore, as they are prepared to operate with vessels of up to 26 rows of containers and have a height of 55 meters. In fact, these are the largest cranes in the world of the goose neck design, a type of crane that allows increasing the efficiency, productivity, and flexibility of loading and unloading operations. According to the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, "each crane has cost 12 million euros".
Currently, the needs of international trade demand larger, more efficient, and more sustainable machinery, in every sense. There are increasingly larger container ships that need fast and functional cranes and storage spaces to unload without problems. BEST chose Barcelona to be one of the international trade hubs of Spain, but also for its capacity and willingness to innovate. Under the motto Much more than Two, these two cranes culminate one of the first phases of a project that aims, by 2028, to boost customer growth and the speed of sustainable container loading and unloading, and which will cost a total of 270 million euros.
Public-private collaboration projects
The Port of Barcelona is one of the logistics hubs of the Catalan capital, with more and more companies willing to continue betting on innovation. However, public participation also plays a key role. Puente assured in his last speech before the closing of the event that nearly 1,700 million euros have been invested in projects at the Port of Barcelona. The authority recalled that ports are one of the priorities and their efficiency is key for a more modern and sustainable world. In this sense, he celebrated that companies like BEST launch such revolutionary projects. On the other hand, however, he also mentioned that maritime operations must be accompanied by land operations and, therefore, he specified that there are already railway projects for ports such as Valencia, to improve connectivity.
Regarding the contribution to the city and Catalonia, BEST's modern terminal will achieve greater efficiency in importing and exporting, a matter in which the country is already excellent. As the Minister of Business and Labor also commented at the event: "In Catalonia, we exceed 1,000 million euros in exports" and added that these figures, in constant growth, "would be difficult to understand without what the Port of Barcelona contributes."
BEST, reference terminal
With more than thirty weekly calls connecting the terminal with the main ports of the world, BEST offers efficient, reliable and sustainable solutions for shipping companies, shippers and logistics operators. They have a clear innovative vision that has led them to make investments always for the improvement of international maritime trade. "Year after year it consolidates Barcelona as a logistics hub," Carbonell remarked, and added that practically 40% of the activity related to containers at the Port of Barcelona is carried out by Hutchison Ports, mainly through the BEST terminal.
The arrival of these two cranes raises BEST's endowment at the Port of Barcelona to 15 Super Post-Panamax quay cranes. Also added are 68 automated cranes and about forty Shuttle Carriers (giant vehicles that move containers in modern ports) that operate some 1,500 meters of berthing line and a draft of 16.5 meters. In short, the commissioning of these two new cranes makes BEST propose itself as one of the most powerful strategic partners for logistics operators and shipping companies, but it also allows the Port of Barcelona to shine again for its clear investment in innovation and efficiency that bring it, every day more, to "consolidate Barcelona as the great gateway to and from southern Europe", in the words of Carbonell, president of the Port of Barcelona.