The Port of Barcelona consolidates its recovery. After a nearly paralyzed 2020, the infrastructure obtained profits of 38 million euros in 2021, more than doubling the result of the previous year, when it stood at 17.6 million. "We are recovering at an accelerated pace," explains its president, Damià Calvet. Port activity has not yet fully recovered from the impact of covid, but it has approached pre-pandemic levels, only 14% below the profits it obtained in 2019.
Revenues stood at 151 million euros, above those of 2020 and still below those of 2019. This figure would be higher and would approach that of two years ago if it were not for the 11 million euros allocated to aid for the infrastructure's operators, which will be maintained in 2022. As pointed out by the deputy general director of Economic and Financial Affairs of the Port of Barcelona, Miriam Alaminos, the slow recovery of cruises has also weakened the business figure, which would have allowed an additional 10 million euros to be added to revenues if this market had reached a similar level to that before the pandemic.
These economic figures are accompanied by good operational results. Total traffic stood at 66.4 million tons, only 1.5% less than in 2019, when 67.45 million tons were registered, slightly below the level achieved in 2018, a record year for the Port of Barcelona, with 67.76 million tons. "The growth in traffic is still higher than that of the business figure because the latter includes the package of economic aid," explains Calvet.
The reactivation that the infrastructure is experiencing especially affected container traffic, which did manage to achieve historical records in 2021. Specifically, traffic stood at 3.5 million TEU, 6.2% above the 3.3 million in 2019. This record is repeated in both export and import containers, as well as in traffic, notes the general director, José Alberto Carbonell. Asia is the region of the world with which the port has the most relations, with an exceptional predominance of China, which has increased exports by 42% in 2021 compared to 2019 and imports by 19%.
Cruises have been one of the traffics that continue to be most affected by the pandemic, taking into account that they were prohibited until June 2021. With the reactivation of this segment, the Port de Barcelona has managed to close the year with 521,000 cruise passengers, far from the 3.14 million in 2019, but exceeding initial expectations, which placed them at 200,000. For this 2022, Calvet indicates that they foresee a good number of cruise calls, higher than in 2021, with the forecast of exceeding last year's half a million cruise passengers and gradually recovering pre-pandemic figures throughout the year, without ruling out whether it will be possible to reach three million passengers.
While cruises continue to be affected, in the case of ferries, the recovery has been more accelerated, being only 34.4% below pre-pandemic traffic, with almost a million users. Other traffics still slowed down by the covid crisis have been bulk liquids and new vehicles, also affected by the transition experienced by the automotive sector and the lack of supplies.
Investment of more than 80 million
This 2022, the Port de Barcelona will allocate 81 million euros, 47% more, to various actions, many of them focused on the Port Vell, such as the new fishermen's market and the demolition of the Imax, the latter, with a budget of one million euros. The space that the old cinema will leave free is expected to serve for the Liceu to locate its second headquarters, a project that is being validated. Investment will also be made in the rehabilitation of the Portal de la Pau building. In this area that the Barcelona Port Authority is working to open to the city, Calvet does not give up on the Hermitage, despite the cross-appeals between the City Council, the port, and the promoters of the cultural project. "The Port has not thrown in the towel," he remarks.
Other investments planned for this year include the electrification plan of the Port de Barcelona and continuing with the development of the railway hub, an action that also took a good part of the investment during 2021. The investment planned for 2022 will exceed that of 2021, of 55 million euros, a figure similar to that of 2019. One of the most important investments last year was the acquisition of the land that Total Petrochemicals had in the ZAL Port and which is now being worked on to incorporate into the port domain.