The Chinese car boom reaches the Port of Barcelona: imports soar by 36%.

BarcelonaThe Chinese car boom, driven primarily by electrified models, is already having a direct impact on freight traffic at the Port of Barcelona. According to the infrastructure report this Wednesday, vehicle traffic increased by 3.5% between January and September. This increase is directly related to the rise in sales of Chinese cars in Europe. In fact, the bulk of this traffic recorded in the last nine months is imported, which has grown by 36%.

The Port of Barcelona itself has attributed this sharp increase to several factors, including the "rebound in car sales in the European market and their arrival, largely from China." This fact is also compounded by the recovery of ship service capacity since mid-year. car carrier.

It should be noted that, until September, Chinese car sales continue to lead the global market, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, with an increase of 24.6% compared to the same month of the previous year. BYD leads global sales with 2.36 million units and a year-on-year growth of 31.7% until September. In the Spanish market, MG remains the best-selling Chinese brand, driven by models such as the MG ZS.

In the Spanish market, sales of Chinese cars have increased significantly until September, representing around 6.55% of the total market, with 66,608 units registered, almost double the number in the same period last year.

Regarding total freight traffic at the Port of Barcelona, ​​​​52.3 million tonnes were recorded from January to September, 1.6% less than in the same period in 2024. Total container traffic follows the trend of recent months. Full containers for imports and exports grew by 5.6%, mainly due to the increase in imports from countries such as China, Turkey, India, Vietnam and Bangladesh, as well as the increase in exports to the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India and India. Thus, import containers grew by 6.2% while export containers by 5.2%.

However, the total volume of container traffic registered a decrease of 5.1%, due to the drop in traffic containers (-15.5%). Solid bulk cargo also fell, specifically by 12.8%, despite the positive performance of segments such as non-metallic minerals (+98%).

Passengers and cruise passengers

Regarding passenger traffic, the increase stands at 6.5%. Through September, ferries carried a total of 1,521,714 passengers. 3,076,661 cruise passengers also passed through the port, of whom 1.8 million visited the city of Barcelona. In September, the number of cruise passengers decreased by 4.2% compared to the same month in 2024.