BEST container terminal gains 25% capacity after €150 million investment

BarcelonaMany of the products found on store shelves or delivered to our homes as packages make long journeys on ships, filling containers to the brim and traveling from one end of the world to the other. Cranes are placed on the ground that look like something out of a science fiction movie, exaggeratedly large and capable of lifting a lot of weight. At the Port of Barcelona, the main container terminal has just opened an expansion that has increased its capacity by 25%.

Since its launch in 2012, the BEST terminal, managed by the Hong Kong group Hutchison Ports, has continued to grow, serving large container ships simultaneously while trucks and trains constantly depart from its facilities to deliver goods. Located on the Muelle Prat, the most remote part of the port in the city, more than 1,100 dockworkers work there.

The facility has just added seven container blocks, bringing the total to 34. Each block has an annual storage capacity of approximately 100,000 TEUs—the equivalent of a 20-foot container, approximately 6.1 meters long. Last year, BEST broke its record with more than 2.7 million containers, and there's still plenty of room to expand with new blogs.

The Catalan terminal, the group's first semi-automated terminal, which was later replicated around the world, has also added 1,000 connection points for refrigerated containers, a sector in which the infrastructure surpasses that of its southern European competitors. Two more cranes will arrive next year, taller than the current ones, reaching up to 90 meters, designed to handle large ships.

With an investment of 150 million euros, the expansion was carried out on 10 hectares of land that the Port of Barcelona handed over to Hutchison, which has increased the area it occupies to 90 hectares. "Today we celebrate an important milestone for all of us. We will continue investing in solutions that position our terminal as an international benchmark," summarized Clemence Cheng, head of Hutchison Ports' European division. "For more than twenty years, the BEST terminal has grown, evolved, and become an international benchmark. It has put Barcelona on the global maritime map," added José Alberto Carbonell, president of the Port of Barcelona.

In the coming years, the BEST terminal plans to grow even further and wants to do so on adjacent land that will allow it to reach a surface area of ​​one hundred hectares, where there is currently only sand. It will now have forty container blocks, twenty cranes, and 4,000 refrigerated plugs. It has also achieved operational leadership by being the first terminal to incorporate a system a year ago to supply electricity to ships, allowing them to turn off their engines when they dock at the port and plug into the grid. This plug for ships is part of the Port of Barcelona's project to electrify its operations, with a planned investment of 200 million euros.

New stage with MSC

The increased capacity of the BEST terminal comes with a new phase in the ownership of the infrastructure. After months of negotiations, the Port of Barcelona's board of directors authorized the operation a few weeks ago. the entry of the Swiss multinational MSC"Beyond the changes in our shareholder base, we must not change," argued its CEO, Guillermo Belcastro.

The world's leading shipping group, with a 20% share of the container transport market, will share ownership of this large terminal equally with Hutchison Ports, which will continue to manage it. The approval of the European competition authorities is currently pending.