Spain will invest €1,001 million in ports in 2021

The president of Puertos del Estado (PdE), Francisco Toledo, has presented the budgets of the state-owned port system which will amount to €1,001 million in 2021, almost double that planned for this year. This increase in investment effort is expected to continue in the period 2020-24, totaling €4,500 million in round numbers - December 9, 2020 The budget aims to meet the requirements of the ports and also attract private investment. Planned private investment in ports for 2021 amounts to €891 million and the total for the 2020-24 period reaches €4,200 million, a figure similar to public investment. According to Toledo, investments will swing from the sea side to the land side, focusing mainly on port terminals, among which those of Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao, Avilés, Las Palmas, Málaga, Pasaia, SC Tenerife, Santander and Vigo, among others, stood out. Secondly, the investment budgets include numerous actions to improve the land connectivity of the ports amounting to €366 million to modernize ports' internal road and rail networks. To these actions should be added the 56 included in the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund for an amount of €443 million in the 2020-24 period, of which there are already 14 agreements signed with Adif. With railway investments of €809 million, ports will boost and increase freight traffic by rail so that Spain leaves the tail of the European Union in this area, and goes from the current meager 5% to approach 18% of the European average, which will improve the competitiveness of our productive sector. A third block of relevant investments will be dedicated to environmental sustainability and energy, for the mitigation of climate change, in line with the European objective of a climate-neutral economy in 2050. A total amount of more than €100 million is contemplated in the 2020-2024 ( €32 million in 2021 ) for a wide range of actions in this area. Another chapter of interest is investments in security. To comply with the IMO agreements on both protection ('security') and safety ('safety'), €83 million has been budgeted for the 2020-24 period (€30 million in 2021). Toledo also highlighted the performances of digitization that for the period 2020-24 is over €200 million (€50 million in 2021). The digitization processes are a substantial part of the commitment to innovation that is essential for ports . In fact, in line with the MITMA Innovation Plan, we have already taken the first steps in this chapter with the launch of the 'Ports 4.0 Plan' whose first call has been a successful participation with no less than 474 innovative proposals. Another vitally important budgetary chapter is port-city integration for which an investment of €170 million has been budgeted in the 2020-24 period (with €35 million in 2021). TOLEDO: THE PORTS WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE ECONOMIC REACTIVATION According to Toledo , the two main objectives of port budgets are, on the one hand, to contribute to the economic reactivation that the country needs in these difficult times and, on the other, to modernize the ports in line with the Strategic Framework. In addition to the aforementioned productive investments, the ports will contribute to economic reactivation by improving the competitiveness of our economic fabric by reducing costs to port operators, by reducing rates and extending bonuses. Regarding the reduction of rates, through reduction of correction coefficients, 13 of the 28 port authorities lower the current rates and none increased them. The average rate reduction among the Port Authorities that do so are 6.9% in the ship rate, 16.9% in the passenger rate and 7.3% in the merchandise rate. On the total collection of the three rates, they represent a reduction of 5.7%, 6.2% and 3% respectively, which will allow operators to save € 26.7 M in fees. Regarding the bonuses, those in force amounting to more than € 111 million are kept, they are expanded with some specific ones and new ones are established by virtue of the fourth final provision of Royal Decree Law 26/2020. This new line of discounts responds to the consideration of regular maritime services between the peninsula and extra-peninsular territories as strategic lines. All the Peninsular Port Authorities have applied notable discounts in the rates, whose average is 24.2% for ships, 23.3% for passengers and 25.8% for merchandise. Together they will mean a saving of more than € 5 million in fees. In summary, the savings in rates for operators , between discounts and discounts, will exceed € 32 million , which is more than 5.5%. Puertos del Estado is a state-owned organisation responsible for the management of state-owned ports. The company executes the port policy of the government and coordinates and controls the efficiency of the port system, made up of 28 port authorities that manage the 46 ports of general interest. Source: Puertos del Estado

Spain will invest €1,001 million in ports in 2021

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Spain will invest €1,001 million in ports in 2021

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All news

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Two cocaine shipments, 720 kg and 720 kg, seized in Vlissingen port

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