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he Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL) of the Port of Barcelona has become a privileged enclave for attracting investments and strategic projects to boost the competitiveness of the metropolitan region. There is a constant trickle of new initiatives and companies announcing their plans to set up in this macro-industrial park, managed by the public-private company Cilsa.
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Decathlon, Caprabo, Damm, Lidl, UPS, Agility, Kuehne + Nagel, Carrefour, DB Schenker and Fedex are some of the companies that have chosen to set up or strengthen their presence in the ZAL thanks to its privileged geographical position and the fact that it is one of the largest intermodal hubs in Southern Europe, with maritime, airport, rail connections and rapid access to the main road networks.
The success of the ZAL has led to the exhaustion of all available land in both the so-called ZAL Port Ciutat and the ZAL Port Prat, which permanently forces the evaluation of all opportunities that may arise to satisfy the demand for logistics surface area that exists in Barcelona. Thus, last April, the Port of Barcelona approved granting Cilsa the exploitation of the last two plots remaining to be built in the ZAL Port, which meant adding two plots of 14,409 square meters and 10,874 square meters.
Now, the surface area of the ZAL could increase again thanks to the pre-agreement that the port authority chaired by Mercè Conesa has reached with the French multinational Total Petrochemicals to acquire the land of the chemical products factory it had in El Prat until last year. This is an area of 99,183 square meters that "will allow to respond to the logistics surface needs required by port traffic," according to the Port of Barcelona.
Total Petrochemicals announced at the beginning of 2019 its decision to close the El Prat plant due to the reduction in polyethylene sales worldwide and regulatory changes at European and international levels, which impacted the competitiveness of the work center.
According to Port de Barcelona, Total's plot is considered an industrial enclave that is not currently part of the ZAL, even though it has practically been integrated into the industrial estate from an urban planning perspective. The factory was built thanks to a 1969 Pratenc industrial estate planning scheme, when these lands were not part of the so-called port service area. Now, thanks to the pre-agreement with Total, the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of Barcelona (APB) has initiated procedures with the Ministry of Finance to incorporate this industrial enclave into its domain.
The ZAL currently has a logistics area of more than 920,000 square meters, so with this action the hub will exceed one million square meters. The company managing the land, Cilsa, is 51.5% controlled by the APB and 48.5% by the listed real estate company Merlin Properties, led by Ismael Clemente. Alfonso Martínez is the general director of Cilsa and Mercè Conesa holds the presidency.