First stone to boost the port of Barcelona as the entry gate for Chinese cars

BarcelonaVehicles are one of the main goods moved by the Port of Barcelona, closely linked to the local automotive industry with leading companies such as Seat. It is the leading port in Spain for this traffic and fifth in all of Europe. A position that was becoming insufficient. "We decided we wanted to take a step further," explained its president, José Alberto Carbonell, this Thursday at the laying of the first stone of the future car terminal of the Japanese logistics giant Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), which will be located at the Muelle Príncipe de España.

With an investment of 75 million euros, the new terminal will have the capacity to move nearly 180,000 vehicles annually, mostly imports. "We want to make Barcelona a hub for the distribution of Chinese cars in the Mediterranean," stated the general director in Spain of International Car Operators (ICO), the Belgian subsidiary of the Japanese group that will operate the terminal. Today, the Port of Barcelona is the entry point for 80% of Chinese vehicles arriving in Spanish territory. The cars will be sent to markets such as Italy, Greece, North Africa, or Turkey. The Catalan facility will be coordinated with the other two terminals that ICO has in Belgium, in Bruges and Antwerp, with a capacity for more than 2.5 million cars annually, with the aim of covering all of Europe.

"It will allow us to consolidate traffic and improve connectivity, which will favor the export of local factories and their competitiveness," Carbonell has valued. Last year, the port of Barcelona moved 716,000 cars and, with the new terminal, they aim to approach one million units. 40% are transported by train, a proportion that the port wants to increase, despite the difficulties suffered by its rail connections in recent months. The ICO facility will be located next to the railway terminal of the Príncipe de España dock, which will be expanded with a fourth track, allowing the Belgian company to move up to 10 trains per week. It will be the third terminal dedicated to vehicle traffic that the port will have, after the Catalan Setram and Autoterminal, from the Madrid group Noatum.

Underway in 2028

The construction works that have just begun will extend until early 2028, when the facility will be able to start operating. It will be a fully automated vertical warehouse, with space for more than 8,100 cars. It will be operated with 100% electric handling equipment and, furthermore, it will be crowned by a photovoltaic installation. Built on a plot of 101,000 square meters, it will be able to accommodate up to 11,000 vehicles on adjacent land at peak capacity. The ICO terminal will be able to handle both standard trucks and megatrucks.