The Port of Barcelona awards the new vehicle terminal to NYK

In its meeting today, the Port of Barcelona's Management Board awarded Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) the concession for the new car terminal for a period of 27 years. This Japanese company, which is one of the largest shipping companies in the world and has the second largest fleet of car carrier ships, will invest a total of €75 million to build the new public terminal, which will be located on Príncep d'Espanya wharf and will bolster the Port of Barcelona's role as an international automotive sector hub. 

The call for tenders to award this third vehicle traffic terminal at the Port of Barcelona responds to the growing traffic in new cars, especially electric vehicles, coming largely from the Far East and destined for various markets in Europe. The bid by NYK, a multinational transport and logistics company with a fleet of 96 car carriers already operating 17 ro-ro terminals, mainly in east and southeast Asia and northern Europe, responds to this need, with forecast traffic of close to 180,000 vehicles per year from 2028, most of which will be imported. 

This volume of traffic will represent not only a quantitative but also a qualitative leap for the Port of Barcelona in terms of new vehicles logistics. The new terminal will occupy 101,058 m2 and will come on stream in early 2027. Most of the investment effort, which is the largest by any Japanese company in a Spanish port, will go towards building a new automatic silo with capacity for 8,160 vehicles. The terminal will be operated using 100% electric vehicles and handling equipment and the automatic silo will be topped by a photovoltaic installation with an annual generation capacity of 3,211 MWh. 

In accordance with the Port of Barcelona's strategy, NYK's bid also includes a significant commitment to intermodality. The new terminal will be located next to the railway terminal on Príncep d'Espanya wharf, which can currently operate 750-metre trains in all three gauges (UIC, Iberian and metric), soon to be further expanded with a fourth track, which will allow NYK to move up to 10 trains per week. 

At the same time, NYK also owns 50% of the Norwegian shipping company United European Car Carriers (UECC), which specialises in connections for vehicle logistics in Europe. The synergies derived from this relationship will allow the Port of Barcelona to position itself as the Mediterranean hub for distributing vehicles not only to the rest of the European Union, but throughout the Mediterranean, including North Africa and Turkey. 

In the words of Port of Barcelona president José Alberto Carbonell, “NYK's bid fits perfectly with our objectives, consolidating the Port of Barcelona as a vehicle logistics hub at a time when significant changes are taking place in distribution chains in this sector. Its commitment to intermodality and the construction of a sustainable terminal is also aligned with our commitment to decarbonisation.” 

First OPS for cruise ships 

The Management Board of the Port of Barcelona has also awarded the construction and commissioning of the first Onshore Power Supply (OPS) system for cruise ships to the company Powercon, to be installed in terminal H of Adossat wharf, under concession to MSC Cruises and operational since the beginning of the year. 

The contract has been awarded for €12,225,000 and, following the “turnkey” format used in the two OPS currently in operation at the Port of Barcelona, includes drafting the project, construction, and commissioning and maintenance of the system during the first two years, to streamline the entire process. 

Powercon will also perform the necessary civil engineering works and roll out the cabling to the distribution centre from which the energy supply will be managed. Initially, the OPS substation that will supply energy to the cruise ships in the MSC terminal will be installed in this distribution centre located between terminals E and G, but spaces have already been reserved to locate up to five more OPS systems. This means that all the OPS to electrify the cruise terminals on Adossat wharf will be centralised in one place. 

From there, the new OPS system will be connected via underground cabling to the facilities located in the MSC terminal itself, where a parking space will be provided for the mobile cabling management system (CMS) and a control cabin. Just like in the OPS of the BEST terminal and Grimaldi Terminal Barcelona, this system is designed to be compatible with the terminal's operations. 

In fact, the MSC terminal was designed and built with the installation of the OPS system in mind. Thanks to this planning, the civil works on the wharfside, which include a trench through which the cables will be laid right up to the point where the ship will be connected, are already in progress, which will simplify the installation process. 

This OPS will be the first to operate connected to the new medium-voltage network that will be deployed throughout the Port of Barcelona to electrify the main wharves. The flagship of this network, the Port substation, will come on stream in early 2027 and, together with the underwater drilling between the Energy and Adossat wharves, also under construction, will enable the power supply needed to electrify the cruise terminals. 

”Once the first phase of the Nexigen Plan has been completed, with the entry into operation of the two OPS systems in the pilot phase, the construction of the first OPS for cruise ships represents an important qualitative leap in the electrification of the wharves of the Port of Barcelona, the key element in the decarbonisation of port activity, which is now entering its decisive phase”, stated Port of Barcelona president José Alberto Carbonell.