José Llorca, president of Ports of the State, held a meeting in the capital of Cantabria with the great dealers of the port of Santander, which has reported the main modifications established by Law 18/2014.
To the meeting, in which the president and director of the Port Authority of Santander, Mr. José Joaquín Martínez Sieso and Ms. Cristina López Arias were also present, respectively, around 30 people attended, representing a large part of the companies that operate within the land of the port.
Throughout his presentation, Llorca reported those issues that directly affect the expansion of the maximum period of port concessions from 35 to 50 years.
The measures included in the new Decree Law seek to bring the conditions of Spanish concessions with the European concessions, establishing among others, that the initial term of the concessions granted prior to the entry into force of this decree law may be extended to 50 years , provided that the concessionaire requested before July 5, 2015 and certain obligations are fulfilled, which can be a new investment of up to 20% of the initial investment to improve the productivity of port operations, energy efficiency, environmental quality or for new technologies that increase competitiveness; Contribution to the financing of terrestrial connection infrastructure or reduction of at least 20 % of the maximum rates included in the concessional title. The extension of the concession term may not exceed 2/5 of the initial term. For the Port Authority to grant this extension, a favorable report of State ports is necessary.
In addition, the president of Ports of the State analyzed the changes in the different possibilities of extensions, both ordinary and extraordinary, which includes the aforementioned law and that may be requested throughout the term of the concession. Among the objectives of these modifications are, according to Llorca, "incentivize the long -term private initiative within the ports by enhancing private investment projects within the Spanish port system."
In this regard, José Llorca pointed out that in recent years Spanish ports had invested great resources in “on the sea side” infrastructure projects, so he currently added, the system, which moves 500 million tons annually, has the capacity to move up to 1,000 million without making new infrastructure.
Llorca explained that this year it is already being invested in infrastructure for the land connection, especially with the railroad, and, he added, “we will be very proactive to capture European funds for connectivity projects, since one of the paths to get out of The crisis is enhancing the logistics sector. ” The president of Ports of the State said that there are currently many opportunities for port traffic to increase, and that this year the forecast is that they grow around 5%.
After the intervention of the President of the State, a question of the attendees took place.
The meeting José Joaquín Martínez Sieso closed, who highlighted the total collaboration of the PHC to facilitate the initiatives and investments in the concessions seeking the maximum efficiency and productivity of the port operations, which will result in the port of Santander being more competitive. He also referred to the absolute coordination that exists with state ports for all these issues.