The Assembly Hall of the Chamber of Commerce hosted on February 24 the presentation in Madrid of the Port of Santander. To this meeting, which was attended by about a hundred representatives of exporting and import companies based in the capital of Spain, the presidents of Madrid and Cantabria, Ignacio González and Ignacio Diego, respectively; the president of Ports of the State, José Llorca; the president of the port of Santander, José Joaquín Martínez Sieso; The Minister and the General Director of Transport of the Government of Madrid, Pablo Cavero and Federico Jiménez de Parga, respectively, and the presidents of the Chambers of Commerce of Madrid and Cantabria, Arturo Fernández and Modesto Piñeiro.
After the opening of the act by the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid, José Joaquín Martínez Sieso intervened, who highlighted the competitiveness, flexibility and quality in the traffic that is carried out from the port of Santander, and that in the case of the Vehicles, has placed the Cantabrian Rada among the best according to the reports that ANFAC elaborates on cars transport, an appreciation, he added, "with great value since it is made by the final customer of the port." During his words, Martínez Sieso addressed those responsible for companies with a clear message, pointing out that "we want Santander to be the port of Madrid in the Cantabrian."
José Llorca highlighted Santander's connections with Great Britain and the rest of the world through regular services, and also referred to vehicle traffic stating that “it is one of the most competitive ports and the one that has grown the most in this traffic in 2014". He cited as objectives of the Spanish ports, and among them that of Santander, to be more and more cheaper, more efficient and better connected to take advantage of the opportunities that the logistics industry can have for our country.
The president of Cantabria, Ignacio Diego, referred to the bet that the Government has made in this legislature for “the infrastructure, both of the port and in connections”, and indicated as examples the recent inauguration of the section of the Cantabrian highway, and improvements in the rail network. He also referred to the pioneering project that will be carried out at the University of Cantabria to improve future approaches in high speeds. He also referred to relevant aspects of Cantabria, both at the level of training, referring among other aspects to dual professional training and the high level of research and innovation of the UC, and to economic variables, noting that Cantabria is the 5th Community In Industrial GDP in Spain and leader in 2014 in reducing unemployment, to tell those present that Cantabria wants to show himself as "a friendly region and with the intention of establishing fruitful relations for our territories." He ended by adding that "the port is a bet of total importance for this government and hence the great collaboration with the Port Authority and the different operators."
Finally, Ignacio González, described this act as "extraordinary, an example of institutional collaboration between communities to build our country in a positive way and take advantage of growth and employment opportunities." The president of Madrid expressed his support for initiatives such as this, he said, "contribute to reciprocal development." González stressed that "today a window of opportunities opens so that Madrid businessmen can go abroad."
After the intervention of the authorities, it was the turn of the most technical exhibitions in charge of the director of the port, Cristina López Arias, and the representatives of the shipping companies who perform regular services from Santander. Cristina López explained some of the characteristics of the port, among others, its degree of specialization, and its connection with the 5 continents. He also stressed that it is the closest port to Madrid, with excellent connectivity with the capital by road and rail, and the first port of the North in RO-RRO traffic. Other issues addressed were rail penetration within the port facilities, the high quality logistics offer based on the collaboration and joint work of all port actors with APS, and low prices. He ended up alluding to the projects of new infrastructure that are already underway or about to start as Raos 9 and the 4th Vía de Raos, and the improvement of existing ones.
Behind her intervened the representatives of the shipping companies, specifically Brittany Ferries, EML, Finnlines, Höegh Autoliners, UECC, (United European Carriers), and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. All of them regularly connect Santander with the rest of Europe and the world, and their managers explained the main characteristics of their services, from the type of ships with which they operate, among which are some of the most modern in the market, to the number of scales that make, connections, or type of traffic they make. During the presentations, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and Höegh Autoliners announced that in the coming months they will arrive in Santander with their new more modern and efficient models.
Carlos San Miguel de Brittany Ferries explained to those present that this company makes 4 weekly exits from Santander with Portsmouth destinations, a port closest to the most important industrial areas in the United Kingdom, and Plymouth.
The EML representative, José Pressani excused his attendance at the event, and instead was Patricio Arrarte, of the commercial department, who made the exhibition of this ship that scale in Santander 2 times a week and has 3 ships for this regular service .
Mario Massarratti, from Grimaldi Logística Spain, in addition to referring to the connections that the Naviera Finnlines operates directly between Santander and ports of the European Atlantic facade, including the most important ports of the Baltic and the North Sea, emphasized the possibility of using , from Santander the numerous, Grimaldi lines, since through its Hub of Antwerp you can go to more than 112 ports of the five continents.
Jorge López, represented to Höeg Autoliners, presented some data that showed Caribbean, South Africa, Ports of the Indian and Oceania.
UECC, which in 2014 moved 200,000 vehicles through the port of Santander and all types of loaded load, maintains 3 weekly scales in Santander, from where, said José Antonio del Río, connects the capital of Cantabria with Zeebrugge, Rotterdam and Great Brittany. In addition to the three regular scales, they make assistance scales for traffic peaks.
Finally, Ramón Oliete, by Wilhelmsen Logistics, referred to the regular lines that his company maintains from Santander, and that Cantabria connect with the east coast of the United States, the South American Pacific, and with South Africa and Oceania. He stressed that by Santander they regularly docked the ships of the Mark V series, the largest ro -ro in the world.