Valenciaport closed the first quarter of the year with 5.04% growth in its foreign trade, to a total of 5,509,856 tonnes.
This figure is mainly due to the good performance of exports which, up to March, increased by 6.02%. In total, in this period, the three ports managed by the Port Authority of Valencia (Valencia, Sagunto and Gandia) exported 3,498,847 tonnes. Among the main destinations, it highlights countries such as Italy (+ 4.53%), the United States (+ 7.51%) and Morocco (+ 24.02%) stands out. Meanwhile, imports went up by 3.38% to 2,011,009 tonnes due to China (+ 13.04%); France (+ 27.08%); United States (+ 0.21%) and Turkey (+ 29.13%). Despite the good performance of foreign trade, the decline in traffic transit (-4.50%) has caused the decrease of the total traffic by 1.23% to a total of 17,305,651 tonnes.
Regarding container traffic, the foreign trade of full containers maintains a positive tone registering an increase of 4.80% at the end of the first quarter of the year. Valenciaport begins to recover from the effects of the low productivity of the month of February, going from a decrease of 7.98 until February to a decline of 5.88% in the accumulated until the month of March. In total, 1,087,571 TEUs were handled at the end of the first quarter. This decline is mainly due to the evolution of transit (-6.12%) and empty containers (-25.64%).
Containerised general cargo went down by 1.72% to a total of 12.958.846 tonnes. This includes goods such as construction materials which rose by 2.14% to 4.41 million tonnes; other goods which fell by 0.14% to 526,000 tonnes; and chemical products which increased by 6.03% to 1.52 million tonnes.
Conventional general cargo increased 1.69% during the first quarter of the year to a total of 2,761,246 tonnes. This growth is mainly due to the good results of the steel products, which increased by 30.01% to 620,000 tonnes. Conversely, vehicles and its pieces decreased by 3.65% to 364,000 tonnes. A breakdown of this traffic revealed that the ports of Valencia and Sagunto handled 205,070 vehicles to march, up 6.41% on the same period last year. On the contrary, ro-ro traffic decreased by 4.82% to 2,132,064 tonnes.
Liquid bulk increased by 9.75% in the first quarter of the year to 1,029,447 tonnes. This growth came from the volumes of gas natural, which grew by 10.39% to 651,000 tonnes; gasoil, which rose by 18.06% to 133,000 tonnes; and chemical products, which increased by 17.91% to 92,000 tonnes.
Solid bulk fell in the first three months of the year by 18.39% to 465,856 tonnes. In this section it highlights the movements of cereals and flours (-32.74%) to 195,000 tonnes; natural and artificial fertilizers (+32.684%) to 106,000 tonnes; and cement and clinker (-27.77%) to 64,000 tonnes.
Passenger traffic
During the first quarter of the year, a total of 128,223 people used the Port of Valencia, representing a 15.15% increase over the same period in 2016. Of these passengers, 106,440 used regular lines (+32.18%) while 21,783 were cruise passengers (-18.09%).
Traffic by countries and geographical areas
The five countries shipping the largest volume of goods through Valenciaport in the first quarter of the year have been: Spain, with 1.96 million tonnes (-5.50%), China, with 1.65 million tonnes (+6.38%), Algeria, with 1.13 million tonnes (-26.02%); Italy, with 1.12 million tonnes (-10.89%) and the United States, with 1.11 million tonnes (+1.02%). By geographical areas, the largest traffic volumes were with the Mediterranean and Black Sea with 4.49 million tonnes, down 13.45%, and the Far East, with traffic of 2.47 million tonnes, up 9.18%.