Tarragona prepares for growth

XL MED

PORTS • THE KEY SPANISH PORT AT TARRAGONA IS INCREASING ITS CHEMICAL QUAY CAPABILITIES TO ACCOMMODATE GROWING MEDITERRANEAN DEMAND FOR BULK LIQUID FREIGHT

THE PORT OF Tarragona is one of the most important Spanish ports and a key location for Mediterranean trade. Located an hour along the Catalan coast from Barcelona, the port handles more than 32m tonnes of cargo per year – 19m tonnes of which is liquid bulk freight.

Tarragona is aiming to consolidate its position as a Mediterranean hub for the production, storage and distribution of chemicals and petrochemicals and is seeking to capitalise on this sector by leveraging its relationship with the regional chemical cluster. This is done through the ChemMed Tarragona initiative, representing an industrial, logistic, academic and scientific cluster in the area.

ChemMed comprises more than a hundred chemical companies (both manufacturers and service providers) and a first-rate cargo port. One of the key points of the cluster is the wide range of pooled infrastructure and services it has, which includes two combined-cycle power plants with a total capacity of 820 MW, reclaimed water supply, a pooled underwater sewage outlet pipe, extensive pipeline infrastructure for the transport and exchange of materials, and three pooled fire stations.

Tarragona completed an expansion of its chemical quay in 2014, which is now almost all under concession. Its clients store a wide variety of products and are currently expanding storage capacity from 800,000 m3 to some 1.5m m3 .

There are three main competitive advantages that strengthen the position of Tarragona in the international chemical trades. It has plenty of expertise in the market, making Tarragona the epicentre of the Mediterranean chemical industry. It has deep draught access, allowing larger tankers to call, and offers berth-to-berth and rail interconnectivity. It is also efficient, offering round-the-clock operations and favourable weather conditions all year. Additionally, the port is connected to the local chemical industry by a major pipeline network, providing strong optimisation.

The port is working hard to improve its facilities and services to provide the safest and most sustainable operations. There is a safety strategic park inside the port facilities and a pooled service between the port and the chemical terminals to provide swift response in case of any maritime pollution.

MED HUB DAY 2019 Tarragona’s annual Med Hub Day is a very important event for the port, and takes place this year on 21 and 22 November. This workshop, which is sponsored by the Port Authority and ChemMed, has the main goals of presenting, analysing and discussing the potential the Mediterranean has to be a key regional hub for liquid bulk products. This annual meeting is dedicated to enhancing the potential of the Mediterranean region as a logistics platform for petrochemical products in order to become a regional hub for those products.

Each year a range of stakeholders meet to discuss how to increase the competitiveness of the Mediterranean region. Topics for discussion at this year’s Med Hub Day will include current logistic routes, how costs can be reduced, improving delivery times and reducing CO2 emission. New production and consumer centres around the world will shift chemical trade flows and make the Mediterranean a key zone to optimise the petrochemical logistic chain on a global scale.

The main benefits to be found from attending the 2019 event will be: • Learning about new liquid bulk flows to the Mediterranean area • Networking with prospective clients, peers and other stakeholders in the supply chain industry • Identifying business opportunities and areas of focus to improve competitiveness

This event allows the Port of Tarragona to present its infrastructure as one of the main nodes in the Mediterranean for both chemical and petrochemical products. It also highlights that the port is an important player in the organisation of international events. HCB www.hubdaytarragona.com www.porttarragona.cat