IBERIA\\\


Issue 7 2015 - Freight Business Journal


The rain stops falling on the plane in Spain


Convalescence is not the same as complete recovery but Spain’s economy is at


least exhibiting


signs of life. The country is posting growth of


around 3.3% again,


stronger than it has been for the past eight years or so, and among the higest in the Eurozone. At the same time, though, structural unemployment of around 18% is hardly the stuff of prosperity, so the economy has clearly some way to go before it can be taken off the critical list. Politicians have to tread carefully when announcing the end of the economic crisis; for anyone on the dole and little immediate prespect of getting off it, it doesn’t seem like that. Spain, it must be remembered,


was one of the so-called ‘PIGS’ (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain),


all of which suffered


grievously during the economic and banking crisis. In Spain’s case, its problems were triggered by a spectacular collapse in the property market. As well as empty housing developments, one of the phenomena were newly built but completely unbuilt airports in many parts of the country. A 1.8% rise in house prices in


2014 may not be much to boast of, and will do little to counteract the estimated 40%-plus fall since the recession set in, but it


is the first increase in six years. The Government has been tweaking the economic controls at its disposal, for example cutting corporate tax and some categories of income tax – but increasing VAT - as well as tackling longstanding problems such as tax evasion. The recent growth is expected


to continue for the next two years, helped along by the financial reforms. Meanwhile, the all-important


holiday trade has recovered, along with retailing and consumer spending. The fall in energy prices has also been most welcome. Exports,


too, are expected to


gain from the improvements in the cost-competitiveness of manufacturing industry and the fall in the Euro. For freight operators, though, that probably means a further increase in the gap between northbound and southbound traffic between Spain and the UK. Investment, while not quite


up to historic highs, has crawled out of the trough it fell into a couple of years ago. It’s hard to remember now, but before the Great Recession, Spain had been enjoying an investment boom with new high speed railways, roads and airports built at a


furious pace. One legacy of that now is that the country enjoys an excellent infrastructure, perhaps rather better than some of its more prosperous Eurozone competitors. Portugal’s economic situation


is essentially a smaller carbon copy of its larger neighbour’s. Prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho’s centre-right government alliance returned to power in the elections in early October but lost its majority and last year the country extracted itself from its EU/IMF bail-out and has started repaying its IMF loan ahead of schedule. The fact that Portugal’s debt is now in the normal sovereign debt market has cut its interest payments at a stroke. Economic growth is currently


around 1.6% and is expected to continue at about 1.7% a year to 2019. But like Spain, Portugal


continues to grapple with a heſty unemployment rate and for many of its citizens, talk of economic recovery sounds hollow indeed. Like Spain, investment fell sharply during the


levels


recession and have only now started to recover. This, say some commentators, is holding back the competitiveness of the country’s exports.


Pall-Ex makes progress


Pall-Ex Iberia’s progress “remains very positive”, with 25% growth throughout 2014 and 20% growth so far this year, says marketing executive, Nicola Forman. She adds: “We’re looking forward to further developments following our presence at the Logistics 2015 event in Porto. The Portuguese market is receptive to our business model, in terms of potential new members and service-users.” Pall-Ex Iberia’s central hub is in


Villaverde, Madrid, with a regional hub in Zaragoza in the north- east. There are 49 hauliers in the network with those in Zaragoza, Valencia, Cordoba and Madrid distributing the greatest volumes of freight. The pallet network concept has


become readily accepted since it was launched in 2011, and activity throughout Iberia is enjoying double-digit percentage growth,


says Nicola Forman. “Pall-Ex’s brand is very familiar in towns and cities as well as on roads throughout Spain and Portugal.” While cross-border freight


distributed throughout the Pall- Ex’s Group European network is growing at nearly 19%, most activity consists of domestic palletised freight distribution throughout Spain and Portugal. However, says Forman, “one of our


key goals for the coming months is to increase our import and export activity. With the Pall-Ex Group’s expansion into new territories, such as Benelux, we have an even more robust service to sell to our members and customers.” Pall-Ex Iberia will meanwhile


add to its membership in strategic areas and develop intelligent solutions for new markets and improve IT systems.


BEST result ever for Barcelona


Hutchison Port Holdings subsidiary Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) moved 15,000teu by rail in August 2016, breaking its previous record of 13,000teu set in March of this year. During the month BEST serviced nearly 300 trains, a 25% increase on its monthly average. BEST general manager


Guillermo Belcastro, described it as “an important milestone for BEST and the Port of Barcelona. With the continued hard work and support from the stevedores and the Barcelona Port Community we hope to sustain this trend for growth.” The terminal - the biggest on-


dock railway terminal of any port in the Mediterranean - has two rail mounted gantry cranes allowing each 22-wagon, 72teu train to be loaded in an average of 1.5 hours and unloaded in one hour. Rail


traffic at BEST has


increased significantly in recent years, and now accounts for 19% of traffic compared with 7% in


21


2010. BEST serves a hinterland


within a 600 kilometer radius of Barcelona, including Madrid, Lisbon, Pamplona, Selgua, Zaragoza, Burgos, Tarragona and France, with an average of 65 services every week. The market for rail has


expanded in recent years as the Port of Barcelona has marketed itself as an alternative


Mediterranean access point


for


Europe. BEST port is HPH’s first semi-


automated terminal and the most technologically advanced port


development project in


Spain, it says. It is capable of serving multiple mega-vessels simultaneously and has an eight- track railway facility, connecting it to traffic coming from, and destined for, Southern Europe.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44