03

Management and
business area

03

Management
and business
area

.

Much more than a simple infrastructure, the Port of Barcelona comprises all the activities performed by organisations that are managed independently but coordinated and led by Barcelona Port Authority with a shared overall strategy.

The infrastructure

The Port of Barcelona is the main transport and services infrastructure in Catalonia and a benchmark port in the Euromediterranean region.

It has 79 regular shipping lines directly connecting the Catalan capital with 188 ports on five continents and more than 450 organisations work there. It is the leading port in Spain for international traffic and specialises in general cargo and high value-added goods.

The Port is structured around three large business units:

  • The commercial port, which brings together activities dedicated to specific traffic.

  • The logistics port linked to the commercial port and the basis for consolidating the networked port model.

  • The city port, the part of the port recovered for urban, nautical and sports uses.

Governance and operation - Governing bodies

Management board of the Barcelona Port Authority

  • President
    ⎯ Mercè Conesa i Pagès

  • Ex officio member
    ⎯ Francisco J. Valencia Alonso (Harbourmaster)

  • General Manager
    ⎯ José Alberto Carbonell Camallonga

  • Members representing the General State Administration
    - Teresa Cunillera i Mestres, Government Delegate in Catalonia
    
- Álvaro Sánchez Manzanares, Secretary General of Puertos del Estado
    -
 Cristina Ozores Jack, State's Attorney

  • Members representing the Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya
    - Antoni Llobet de Pablo, president of the Official Association of Customs Agents
    - Xavier Tàrraga Martínez, coordinator of the Catalan-Balearic area of the State Coordinator of Dockers
    - Jordi Trius, President of the Association of Shipping Agents of Barcelona
    - Emili Sanz Martínez, President of the Association of Freight Forwarders and International Shippers and similar (ATEIA-OLTRA Barcelona)

  • Members representing the municipalities in which the service area of the Port of Barcelona is located
    - Janet Sanz Cid, second deputy mayor of Barcelona City Council
    - Lluís Mijoler Martínez, Mayor of El Prat de Llobregat City Council

  • Members representing the chambers of commerce, business and trade union organisations and key sectors in the port area
    - Xavier Sunyer i Déu, Barcelona Chamber of Commerce

    - Xabier María Vidal Niebla, President of the Association of Port Stevedoring Companies of Barcelona
    - José Pérez Domínguez, CCOO

    - Carlos González Quirós, UGT


This is the highest governing body of the Port of Barcelona and represents the main public administrations with interests in the Port, as well as the social partners and key sectors in the port area.

Barcelona Port Authority Management Committee


Composition of the APB management committee, 2019


This management body brings together the various functional areas of Barcelona Port Authority. It comprises, inter alia, the deputy general managers and the managers of the various areas making up the organisation.

Steering Council for the Promotion of Barcelona Port Authority


Organisation of the Port Community


The Steering Council comprises 65 professionals from the participating companies and is structured into one Executive Committee and eight Working Groups. These are organised by strategic scenarios and comprise representatives of the Port’s actors and players, all of whom are technical experts from the Port Community

The guiding principles

Transparency

Barcelona Port Authority provides various types of information (institutional, organisational and planning; of legal relevance; and economic, budgetary and statistical), both through the website and through the Opendata portal.

Ethics and integrity

The Code of ethics of the Port of Barcelona, approved in May 2015, establishes the values and guidelines of conduct that should mark the behaviour of everyone working there, both in terms of daily operations and in relations with stakeholders.

Sustainability

The Port of Barcelona was one of the original signatories, in 2015, of the United Nations Global Compact and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This commitment was renewed this year with the working meeting held in January between the President of the Port and the President of the Spanish Network of the United Nations Global Compact.

Value contribution

The Port of Barcelona's priority objective is to promote the sustainability of port activity and of the logistics chains that use the Port.

The Port of Barcelona is one of the main drivers of economic development in Catalonia. It plays a key role in the internationalisation drives of companies, acting as a physical link between them and their markets, and is also one of the key competitiveness factors for companies deciding where to locate.

The activity of the Port of Barcelona generates a total GVA to the economy of €3.531 billion, representing 1.7% of Catalan GVA.

The Port generates 41,200 direct and indirect jobs, accounting for 1.1% of total employment in Catalonia.


million euros

%
Catalan GVA


jobs

%
total employment in Catalonia

In its Third Strategic Plan, the Port of Barcelona sets out its aim to add value to the surrounding area and society by defining its mission, vision, values and strategic objective.

The mission

“To contribute to the competitiveness of customers by providing efficient services responding to their needs for maritime transport, land transport and logistics services.”

The vision

“Barcelona: the European port solution in the Mediterranean.”

The strategic goal

“To become the main Euroregion distribution centre in the Mediterranean competing with the ports of Northern Europe.”

Strategy and promotion

The networked port

For years, the Port has been developing a network of services and infrastructures at strategic points in nearby markets to facilitate the routing of cargo between these areas and the Catalan capital: the so-called “networked port".

Connections of the port of barcelona with the hinterland, 2019

Inland maritime terminals

In 2019 the three main terminals in volume of activity registered significant increases and traffic records.


Zaragoza Maritime Terminal
(tmZ):

TEU (+10%)

Terminal Intermodal Centro – Port sec d’Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara):

TEU (+19%)

Saint-Charles Container Terminal
(Perpignan):

UTI (+25.3%)

Rail services

Consolidation and expansion of Port rail services, 2019:

  • Vehicle service with Germany: weekly services.

  • Container service with Miranda de Ebro (Burgos): weekly services.

  • Service for liftable semi-trailers and containers with Luxembourg: weekly services.

  • Container service (especially reefers) with Rotterdam: weekly services.

Short sea shipping services

units

The 153,692 intermodal transport units (ITUs) registered in 2019 translate into an identical number of trucks diverted from the roads to the maritime mode, which is more efficient economically and environmentally.

Commercial promotion

Port representations

The Port of Barcelona has eight commercial representations, which aim to consolidate and to monitor the networked port strategy in nearby markets and to strengthen and establish new relationships in distant markets.

Hinterland: in Zaragoza, north-centre of the Iberian Peninsula, Madrid, Lyon and Toulouse (France).
Foreland: in Argentina, China and Japan.

Participation in fairs and congresses

By participating in fairs and conferences, the Port aims to promote, consolidate and position its strategic traffic, closely studying market trends and the needs of users and operators, and acting as an umbrella for the Port Logistics Community through joint participation to create synergies and add value and competitiveness to the companies in the sector.

  • Taking part with its own stand at international logistics and transport fairs

    - Intermodal South America (Sao Paulo, March)

    - Transport Logistic, Munich (June)

    - Barcelona International Logistics Fair (SIL Barcelona, June)

    - China International Logistics Fair, CILF (Shenzhen, October)

  • Presence at specialised fruits and vegetables (fresh products) fairs

    - Fruit Logistica (Berlin, February)

    - Medfel (Perpignan, April)

    - Fruit Attraction (Madrid, October)

  • Presence at specialised cruise traffic fairs

    - Cruise Shipping Miami - Seatrade, Miami (April)

    - Seatrade Europe, Hamburg (September)

  • Presence at fairs that stand out due to the relevance of the geographical area or market

    ASIA

    - 11th WCA Worldwide Conference (Singapore, March)*

    - 16th SINO International Freight Forwarders Conference (Shanghai, September)*

    - SINO European Freight Forwarders Conference, Barcelona (June)*

    - China International Import Expo (CIIE), Shanghai (November)

    - *Organised by WCA (World Cargo Alliance), under the agreement between the associations WCA and China International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFA, ATEIA and the Port of Barcelona

    NORTH AFRICA

    - 8th Hispano-Moroccan Transport and Logistics Sector Meeting (Tangier, November)

    FRENCH MARKET

    - Top Transport Europe, Marseille (October)

    - World Class Logistics, Paris (November)

  • Participation in other key fairs, congresses and conferences

    - Breakbulk Europe (Bremen, May)

    - Petrochemicals Global Logistics Convention (PGLC), Marseille (June)

    - Automotive Logistics Europe, Munich (July)

    - APPA Latin American Ports Conference (Valparaíso, October)

    - Smart Port Piers of the Future, Barcelona (November)

  • Participation in conferences organised by associations of which the Port of Barcelona is a member

    - Automobile traffic organised by The Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG)

    - Short sea shipping (SSS), organised by the Shortsea Promotion Centre (SPC) association

    - Traffic in coffee, organised by the European Coffee Federation (ECF)

Trade mission by the port of barcelona to japan

The 21st edition of the Port of Barcelona Trade Mission comprised a 63-strong delegation that visited the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama from 8 to 14 November, where visits, business conferences, meetings and bilateral contacts were held. The mission was rated 8.4 out of 10.

Info and details of the mission:

attendees at the business day

attendees at the technical seminar

meetings of 5 contact agendas prepared by ACCIO Tokyo

institutional and commercial visits and meetings of the President of the Port

Promotion of the port community

The eight Working Groups of the Steering Council for the Promotion of the Port Community worked on several projects in 2019:

Strategy and Innovation

  • Identifying how the main global trends will affect the Port of Barcelona.

  • Estimating the future development of the main traffic segments.

  • Identifying weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities that may impact activity as a port.

  • Gaining feedback on the mission, vision and lines of action proposed by the Port of Barcelona.

Training and Employment

  • Writing a list of arguments to propose the creation of a logistics and transport sector board.

  • Completing, publishing, disseminating and maintaining the map of training resources linked to port activity.

  • Feasibility study of an international reference centre for repair and refit activities in Barcelona.

  • Publicising dual vocational training in the port logistics sector through an information day.

  • Introducing students to the Port of Barcelona and the professions of the sector.

Sustainability and Environment

  • Presentation of the 2018 Sectoral Sustainability Plan Report.

  • Grouping companies in the port area to tender a joint bid for electricity supply to achieve more advantageous prices.

  • Introducing hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel and learning about experiences of using H2 as a transport fuel.

  • Final presentation of the Cleanport project.

  • Study on the potential to generate wind energy in the port area.

Quality as a tool for competitiveness

The Port of Barcelona is focusing direct efforts and objectives to achieve a level of efficiency and quality to allow it to stand out from competing ports while helping to make its customers more competitive.

The Quality System

The Port of Barcelona's Quality system is managed by the Port Authority's Department of Goods and Quality Operations (DOMQ) and passed the corresponding follow-up audit of the ISO 9001 certification in 2019.


The Quality Label: Efficiency Network

As regards the efficiency of the processes guaranteed by the Label, the indices recorded in the previous year were maintained for container traffic in 2019, especially for certified logistics chains.

activities certifies (+7%)

In the container traffic area 183 reports were issued, leading to the analysis of more than 753,000 data items.

% Average compliance with quality standards in the scope of vessel services exceeded 90%.

SDGs addressed in this section: