Port accessThe Port of Bilbao will be presenting shippers with its offer along with its novelties in infrastructures and services at Intermodal Europe, to be held at Rotterdam from 15 to 17 November. The Port of Bilbao Authority delegation will be at the Basque Country Logistics stand (Hall 1, Stand D60).
The Port Authority, together with Port operators, is honouring its strategic commitment to develop multimodal services and facilities that improve logistics chain competitiveness. More recent projects include the fitting out of the dry port at Pancorbo (Burgos), the works on the Arasur rail sidings in Alava and the Tudela Multimodal Maritime Platform in Navarre.
Besides, Noatum Container Terminal Bilbao, the company leasing the container terminal, has announced an ambitious investment programme to improve and speed up lorry flows as well as operational capacity. In the 2016-2018 period, the company will invest 10 of the planned 34 million euros, six of which will be spent on the purchase of yard cranes and a railroad crane, while the remaining four million will be dedicated to automatic gates facilities and accesses for lorry traffic and the later extension of the four existing rail tracks from their present 450 to 550 metres.
In addition, as a result of the constant demand for port lands, the Port Authority has commenced the construction of the first phase of a new dock, known as the Central Pier. Investment on the project totals 79 million euros, and will receive a European
Union subsidy as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Programme. This dock is a strategic work that will enable the
Port to maintain its position as a port of reference on the Bay of Biscay, and consequently to generate wealth and employment for Euskadi (the Basque Country) as a first order trading and industrial centre.
In 2015, Port of Bilbao Traffic – excluding both local traffic and supplies and provisions – stood at 32.4 million tonnes, which meant a 5.12% increase. Traffic entering or leaving the Port’s facilities by rail grew 5% in 2015, a figure which rose to 17% in container traffic. Shippers have at their disposal multimodal rail services that link the Port of Bilbao with Alava, Navarre, Burgos, Zaragoza, Madrid, Guadalajara, Seville, Murcia, Barcelona, Castellon and Valencia.
