By October, Spanish ports had handled 455.6 million tonnes (Mt) of goods, a 3.1% increase over the same period last year.
Liquid Bulk Cargo
Liquid bulk cargo totaled 150.1 Mt (+2.9%), driven by increases in crude oil (+3.9%), diesel (+8.9%), gasoline (+29.0%), and, most notably, chemical products, which rose from 7.5 Mt to 17.3 Mt. However, declines were observed in fuel oil (-31.4%), natural gas (-28.1%), and biofuels (-30.3%).
Solid Bulk Cargo
Solid bulk cargo transported by sea reached 70.9 Mt, a 7.4% decline. This drop is primarily due to sharp decreases in two key categories: coal and petroleum coke (-45.7 %) and cereals and flours (-10.0%). These declines offset growth in iron ore (+14.3 %) and non-metallic minerals (+9.4 %).
General Cargo
General cargo grew by 6.9% to 234.6 Mt. Of this, 162.6 Mt (+9.2%) or 15.2 million TEUs (+11.7%) were containerized, while 72.0 Mt (+2.0%) were conventional general cargo. This category also benefited significantly from the rise in chemical products transported this way (+20.1%).
Ro-Ro Traffic and Passenger Numbers
Ro-ro traffic reached 61.1 Mt, a slight increase of 0.9% compared to last year. Regular passenger traffic rose by 2.3%, totaling 24.7 million passengers.
Foreign Trade
Imports increased by 0.4% to 163.7 Mt, driven by growth in general cargo (33.2 Mt; +5.4%) and solid bulk (45.5 Mt; +1.4%), while liquid bulk imports declined (85.0 Mt; -1.8%). Exports also rose to 74.3 Mt (+4.1%), with increases in liquid bulk (20.9 Mt; +9.0%), solid bulk (18.3 Mt; +2.6%), and general cargo (35.1 Mt; +2.2%).