Santander, top rated Spanish port in rail accessibility by ANFAC
Santander continues to lead rail transport in ports with a volume of 48% of the vehicles moved in the dock.
The Cantabrian infrastructure occupies, on this occasion, the second place in the overall maritime-port logistics assessment conducted by the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC), only one tenth below Pasajes and Tarragona.
Santander 22-10-21. Santander has obtained in 2020 the second place in the global maritime-port logistics valuation carried out by 19 companies of the automotive sector for ANFAC, only one tenth below Pasajes and Tarragona, in a year that the association itself has described as "difficult". ANFAC has considered in its annual report that the high fluctuation of the volumes to be transported due to the pandemic and the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union has made that the valuations are "very conditioned" and the global valuation "worsens", falling to 3.9 out of 5.
According to the Association itself, the port of Santander has obtained a "very satisfactory" valuation of 4.2, one tenth below 2019 and adds that "this circumstance and the improvement in score of Pasajes and Tarragona places on this occasion the port of Santander in second place, but remaining at a difference of one tenth of a tenth of the two ports that are placed first in the ranking". It should be remembered that the port of Santander has led this ranking for the last five years.
In 2020 the volume of vehicles moved through the Port of Santander fell by 29.9%, to 322,621 units, of which 68% have been exports. A drop in this traffic that at a global level has been 25.7%.
As for the railroads, Santander continues to lead the transport of vehicles in the ports with a volume of 226,084 units, which represents more than 48% of those moved in the port.
The manufacturers have positively highlighted Santander's road access to the port, the good management of customs procedures, the level of incidents on vehicles for reasons beyond the handling and the flexibility of the service.
For the president of the Port Authority of Santander (APS), Francisco Martin, this is a "positive result, taking into account the circumstances" although he hopes "to return soon to occupy the first place" because "it is the position they deserve" the agents working in the automotive sector in the Port of Santander "for their great involvement and good work".
In addition, Martin recalled that the APS is now working on the construction of a vertical car silo that provides "the necessary capacity to consolidate a strategic traffic for the growth of the port".
This high-rise parking lot proposes the construction of an area of about 70,000 m² while maintaining the possibility of expanding the silo with three more floors in the future, depending on the flexibility required by the evolution of traffic of cars and general cargo in semi-trailers.
The president of the port has also recalled that during the next 18 months more than 100 million euros will be invested in works such as the silo, the Maliaño docks, the container terminal, the fertilizer terminal, the demolition of the Antonio López sheds, Raos 9 or Raos 6, "infrastructures that will serve to carry out the change of model that is going to take place in the port and which involves the reinforcement of general cargo".
Automobile traffic
The automobile terminal of the Port of Santander has been growing in a sustainable manner over the last 20 years to reach more than 8 million vehicles transited through the Cantabrian infrastructure.
Currently, the overall offer of the car terminal can be summarized as follows:
- 1 km of berthing line divided into three piers with three ro ro ramps, two of them of high capacity. The Raos 8 pier, dedicated to both transoceanic and short sea shipping vessels.
- More than 600,000 m2 dedicated to the transit and storage of automobiles.
- Two PDI facilities (pre-delivery centers).
- Specialized rail terminal with 4 tracks with capacity for trains of more than 600m.
- High quality handling and storage conditions: Megapixel and anti-theft surveillance systems, environmental control.
- ANFAC certification for new vehicle traffic.