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COMING TOGETHER PORTS • TARRAGONA ONCE MORE HOSTED ITS MED HUB DAY, THIS YEAR IN VIRTUAL FORMAT, TO HELP PROMOTE THE ROLE OF PORTS AND TERMINALS IN THE CHEMICAL SUPPLY CHAIN THE IDEA OF a ‘hub port’ is hard to define but it has certain characteristics: it acts as a central distribution point, breaking bulk and handling imports, exports and transhipment cargoes equally well. It likely has a significant hinterland and good connectivity by various modes and is probably accompanied by a vibrant industrial sector. For the chemical trades there are certain well-identified hubs around the world and, in Europe, that means the ‘ARA’ ports – Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp – with
There is nothing equivalent in southern Europe, though. The port and bulk liquids storage terminal picture is very fragmented, particularly in Italy and further east. Over the past decade, though, the port of Tarragona in Spain’s Catalonia region has made a great effort to develop the idea of a hub port for the western Mediterranean. It has some great advantages: a well established and significant refining and petrochemical industry, deepwater access and decent hinterland connections, let down only by the lack of
their regional partners along the coast between Hamburg and Le Havre and inland on the Rhine system.
a Euro-gauge rail link. Together with ChemMed, the port of Tarragona has for the past three years organised an event, the Med Hub Day, to bring together stakeholders and experts in the area of ports and terminals to discuss the role of ports, terminals and other logistics players
PORT TARRAGONA HAS INVESTED HEAVILY IN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CHEMICAL TRADE
HCB MONTHLY | DECEMBER 2020
in the development not just of the ports themselves but also their client industries, with a specific focus on the petrochemical sector. This year, the IV Med Hub Day was by necessity online, like all other events. While that hampered the possibility of informal networking – despite a ‘speed networking’ session being included online – the organisers did, over the course of a few hours on 19 and 20 November, bring together engaged and engaging speakers to discuss the issues pertinent to the bulk liquids storage and port sectors. Perhaps predictably, those issues were dominated by how industry has coped during the Covid-19 pandemic, how that pandemic has influenced corporate behaviour, and how the wider oil, gas and chemical industries are going to face up to the challenges of sustainability, decarbonisation and the circular economy in a post-pandemic world. THE BIGGER PICTURE Speakers at the IV Med Hub day came from ports in the Mediterranean and northern Europe, bulk liquids storage terminals and chemical manufacturers in the same regions, and some external consultants who brought their own perspective on issues such as the regional tanker market and the impact
