In a world where the geopolitical context seems increasingly uncertain, the Port of Barcelona is looking ahead to maintain its leadership. Its president, José Alberto Carbonell, aims to attract large logistics centers, aware of the pulling effect they have on the routes of many shipping companies. "What 70% of our clients ask us for is connectivity," Carbonell pointed out in a conference this Friday by the Cercle d'Infraestructures, a mandatory event for all newly appointed presidents of the institution.
When multinationals like Mango transport their products through the port, shipping companies divert their maritime routes and establish their first base in the Mediterranean in Barcelona. This ends up benefiting those small and medium-sized companies that also fill containers but have less market power than the firm based in Palau-solità i Plegamans, which distributes to its stores worldwide from the warehouse it has in Lliçà d'Amunt.
Carbonell focuses on these 17,000 Catalan exporting companies to develop more logistics centers. Not only does Mango's operation, with its garments mostly manufactured in China, impact the port, but also that of other brands like Decathlon and Lidl. Both distribute their products for all of Europe from the Catalan capital. The first, with a 92,000 square meter warehouse in the ZAL, sends its sports equipment to the twenty centers it has spread across the continent, with 130 million items dispatched each year.
During the conference, Carbonell also focused on a conflict that has been dragging on for decades, the difficult coexistence between port and airport. With increasingly taller ships and, therefore, larger cranes to unload their containers, plans to continue serving shipping companies are hampered by aircraft operations, considering that they require a safety distance for landing.
"We are working to make port and airport compatible," he stressed, highlighting that both are first-class infrastructures and must coexist. This is where the future Muelle de Catalunya comes into play, which has already begun its first steps, with the fit still pending resolution. In addition, the port wants to address the need for greater draft in its facilities, with ships also becoming increasingly deeper. The lack of depth has already caused them to lose some clients.