The president of the port of Santurtzi assures that this year they will close with “black numbers”, something that he has described as “good news”. As for the problems of lack of supply, he trusts that the situation will be normalized in 4-5 months.
The President of the Port of Bilbao, Ricardo Barkala, has assured that they hope to recover the precovid levels (2019) in 2023, after closing this year with “black numbers”, once the “horror of 2020” was overcome. “We are advancing, in some containers we are slower than we would like,” he admitted.
In an interview offered to the “Boulevard” program on Radio Euskadi, Barkala painted a portrait of the situation in the port of Bilbao: “The recovery is going from strength to strength, but the wind is not blowing strongly.” Thus, it has found that liquid bulk, which account for 55% of the goods, are doing very well; “Petronor and BBG work,” he added. “The solid bulks They are also behaving very well and in the dry loads we are having more timid and slow increases “, he has detailed. cruise ships, has highlighted that this year they have received 15,000 cruise passengers, that “it is very good”, and that by 2022 they have “sponsored” 79 cruises, compared to 15-20 this year.
On lack of supplies, trusts that the situation will be corrected in a few months. In his words, two factors have affected the crisis: “on the one hand, the mismatch between supply and demand and, on the other, the lack of containers. But both are being corrected and in 4-5 months we will have a normalized situation.”
Barkala has insisted that the intermodality, the combined bet between railway and ship, will be the “real challenge” in the name of sustainability, and has denounced that “Spain to the queue of rail transport.” On the other hand, the Port of Bilbao opted for this some time ago, and has highlighted that 23% of the goods that arrive at the port of Santurtzi do so by rail.
Finally, he has admitted that truck driver shortage “It is a problem” not only for the United Kingdom, but also in Europe and Bilbao. Barkala has cited as obstacles the high average age of the drivers, the “demanding” requirements to obtain the license or the age of the existing fleet as well as environmental requirements.
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
