The head of Valenciaport has listed the grey areas that are weighing down the sector such as energy costs, lack of institutional support, dumping or the loss of capacity of household wages
The president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Aurelio Martinez, has shown his commitment to a key sector for the Port and the Spanish economy
The president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Aurelio Martínez, has shown his support for the ceramics industry to help improve its competitive position, while warning of worrying factors such as attacks on the business world or rising costs. The president of the PAV took part in the presentation that Valenciaport made at Cevisama, where he asked the sector to “tell us how we can support them to strengthen their key role in the Spanish economy and the Valencian Community”.
During his speech, Martínez listed the grey areas that are hampering the competitiveness of the sector, which this year has reduced the volume of its exports. Factors such as “the increase in costs such as energy costs or the lack of support in Spain compared to other competing countries such as Italy, which has meant that they have lost share in key markets such as the United States or the United Kingdom”, he indicated.
The president of Valenciaport pointed out that “one element that causes me a lot of concern, because I come from a family of businessmen, is the absolutely unjustified attack on the business sector, which means that the atmosphere is not the best”.
The head of the PAV also warned of unfair and illegal competition with prices below cost, indicating that the “dumping suffered by the sector is a serious problem of unfair competition, the decapitalisation of companies or the political-economic blockade that is dragging on for a long time, such as the one in Algeria. These are all factors, together with others derived from macroeconomic forecasts with small growth in the economy or the loss of purchasing power in salaries that affect households, which foresee a complicated year”.
However, Martínez appealed “to the capacity of the sector, which has great experience in overcoming these situations” and asked businessmen “to tell us how the PAV can help them to improve their competitive position”. In this sense, Martínez recalled that “Valenciaport is the best connected port in the Mediterranean, which facilitates the reduction of costs for exporting companies” and he is confident that “in the second half of this year the economy will grow”.
Preferential partner
Valenciaport is a preferential partner of the tile and natural stone industry, with services that boost its export activity and enable its products to reach any country in the world. Throughout the Fair, Valenciaport’s commercial team held numerous meetings with the logistics and business community linked to the ceramics industry to explain the competitive advantages of the site for the sector. The ceramics companies are well aware of Valenciaport’s leadership and its connectivity to reach all potential markets.
The Valencian precinct is the leading port in Spain and the Mediterranean in foreign trade for this type of products and this is mainly due to the extensive network of connections that allow the goods to arrive directly to the five continents.