The president of the Port Authority of Bilbao does not foresee that there will be congestion of containers due to the high storage capacity. On the other hand, he has anticipated that this year a cruise ship arrival record will be broken.
Ricardo Barkalapresident of the Port Authority of Bilbao, believes that the Government of Spain should try to deactivate the transport strike “as soon as possible”, without waiting to take measures at the next Council of Ministers, on March 29.
“There is no choice but to sit down. You have to talk to everyone“, Barkala said on Radio Euskadi’s Boulevard about the negotiation with the carriers, because “in all the platforms that manage the trucks there is a nuisance”.
Barkala explained that, despite the fact that “everything is fine inside the port”, the structural problems of the transport sector and the presence of the pickets mean that trucks are having “difficulty” getting in in the Port of Bilbao. One out of every four containers that arrive leaves by rail, in the same proportion as always, and the cargo that should leave by road does not do so “because the trucks do not enter.”
In spite of everything, the person in charge of the port do not anticipate congestion, and also rule out problems with perishable products. “It would have to last a long time and it would have to happen very badly. The container field has a capacity for 2 million TEUs, and right now there are 600,000 TEUs. There is capacity for ships to come, unload and can be stored,” he explains.
The transport strike and the war in Ukraine, after the years of the pandemic and the stowage strike, constitute “the perfect storm” for the port, which is “the thermometer of the economy”. In that sense, Barkala explained that they have lowered the economic recovery forecast of 7% on last year’s data, “which was not the best of years”, to only 2%. “If we are falling in traffic it is because the Basque industry is falling in activity“, he assures.
On the other hand, Barkala has looked with optimism to the summer tourist season, and points to a cruise ship arrival record to Bizkaia: “We have 79 cruise stops planned and closed. If nothing happens, that would be good news”.
Source: Eitb
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