After months of negotiation, the Port of Barcelona has given the green light for MSC to enter the BEST terminal, the most important in the Catalan capital in terms of container transport. MSC, consolidated as the leading shipping group globally, will now only have to wait for authorization from European competition bodies to execute the operation, announced last year. Despite the relevance of the agreement, it has not been the only one closed by the Port: it has extended the concession of the W Barcelona by ten years, which will be fully renovated with an investment of about 80 million euros.
The port enclave agreed to this in a board meeting with a packed agenda. It included not only these two key operations, but also the expansion of Lidl's new non-food products hub, and the tender for the system that will connect the future G cruise terminal to the electrical grid.
"More connectivity" with MSC
MSC's entry into the BEST terminal will materialize through the transfer of 50% of the shares currently held by Terminal Catalunya SAU (Tercat) to Terminal Investments Limited Holding (TiL), a company "majority" owned by MSC. The operation will grant the port "more connectivity," according to the president of the Port Authority, José Alberto Carbonell, who highlighted MSC's global power: it concentrates close to 20% of the capacity of the world's container ship fleet, with about a thousand ships and with the will to approach 30%.
Considering the shipping company's capacity, its entry into the terminal will represent "an important step for the services provided at the Port of Barcelona," added Carbonell. The president of the Port emphasized that the agreement includes specific conditions to guarantee the continuity of the terminal's service to any operator, and mechanisms to avoid possible deadlocks in decision-making, given the 50% distribution of shares. With the agreement, the operation and management of the terminal will continue to fall mainly on Hutchison Ports.
At the other end of the port, another location is preparing to receive another investment: the W Barcelona will be fully renovated with nearly 80 million euros. The operation will entail a ten-year extension ---extendable by five more--- of the concession, until 2041, to CIGAHorels España, the establishment's manager integrated into the Marriott International group.
The works, which are awaiting authorization from the City Council, will be carried out in two phases, as Carbonell detailed: the first will begin in October and will renovate floors 8 to 25, and the second will run from October 2026 to April of the following year and will focus on common areas and lower floors. Of the total, about 40 million will correspond to civil works and installations, while the remaining 40 will go to interior design and furniture.
In addition, the board of directors has taken another step towards the electrification of the future cruise terminal that Royal Caribbean will manage. Specifically, it has given the green light to the tender for the project to install the Onshore Power Supply (OPS) system at cruise terminal G, with a budget of 12.6 million euros and with the forecast that the terminal will be operational in 2027. The port already has OPS systems at the BEST terminal and at the Grimaldi ferry terminal, and will allow cruise ships to connect to the electricity grid so that they can turn off their engines while docked in port.
In parallel, the Port has granted the Intermodal Logistics Center (Cilsa) an administrative concession of nearly 100,000 hectares of the ZAL Prat for the construction of a logistics warehouse for Lidl. The concession of the surface, formerly occupied by the Total company, has a duration of 34 years, extendable. In it, the warehouse that will be built will involve an investment of 42 million euros.
With 55,000 square meters of logistics surface, the future warehouse will have a height of 15 meters, "higher than usual" in facilities of this type. Once operational, Lidl will manage a total of 165,000 square meters in this area. Thus, the company "takes another step towards consolidation in the Port of Barcelona", Carbonell defended.