SPC Spain Observes a Certain Recovery of Short Sea Shipping

The short sea shipping (TMCD) shows a recovery of volumes prior to the COVID-19 crisis in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2019 and 2020, according to the advance of its report from the TMCD Statistical Observatory, which has been made public by SPC Spain.

According to this report, international ro-ro TMCD (excluding vehicles under cargo) recorded 5.97 million tons transported in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 5.6% compared to the same period last year and 4.9% compared to 2019. The Atlantic façade recorded a significant increase of 11% (11.9% compared to 2019), while the Mediterranean façade saw a more modest increase of 4.8% (3.9% compared to 2019).

On the Atlantic façade, the growth of traffic with France (77.4%), which is approaching the figures of 2019, and with Belgium (7.0%) is significant. In contrast, there are decreases of 11.0% with Finland and 8.5% with the United Kingdom. Additionally, the emergence of Ireland is noteworthy, which has boosted the establishment of direct services from the ports of Bilbao and Santander as a consequence of Brexit.

On the Mediterranean façade, traffic with Italy grew by 14.1%, recovering the figures of 2019; while traffic with Morocco shows a reduction of 2.2%. The report highlights the emergence of flows with Turkey, thanks to the recent establishment of a service with that country from the port of Tarragona.

Considering the total TMCD, which includes bulk and cabotage, 64 million tons were moved in the first quarter of 2021, a slight increase over last year (0.3%), but still not reaching the figures of 2019 (-1.5%). The impact of the pandemic continues to be more pronounced in cabotage traffic (-11% compared to 2020) than in external traffic (+2.9%).

Finally, the TMCD of vehicles under cargo continues its downward trend in the first three months of the year, with a decrease of 7.1% compared to the same period in 2020, due to the drop in disembarkations (-19.1%). Embarkations decreased by 2.4%, despite their increase on the Atlantic façade (2.3%) weighed down by the results on the Mediterranean façade (-8.2%).

Photo: Saúl García Amor