There are currently 28 Port Authorities in Spain that manage 46 ports of general interest. Last year, according to the latest data, exceeded the barrier of 17 million TEUs, a growth close to 8 percent over 2017.
Thanks to these numbers Spain managed to position itself as one of the world’s great powers in this business, led by Asia, and the second in Europe, only behind Germany.

Right now the ports of Valencia (5,183 TEUs), Algeciras (4,773 TEUs) and Barcelona (3,473 TEUs) are in the list of the top 50 in the world with the largest movement of containers, while Las Palmas, Bilbao and Santa Cruz de Tenerife are also part of the select group of the Top 200.

RFL, which specialises in tailor-made logistics solutions and, as an international transport company, takes these variables into account on a day-to-day basis as an ally of foreign trade. More considering that Spain has a strategic position as a route for the relevant shipping companies.

The route of Asia: the most important

The three most important ports in container traffic, according to 2018 data, are: Shanghai (China) with 42,010 TEUs, Singapore (Singapore) with 36,600 TEUs and finally Ningbo-Zhoushan (China) with 26,350 TEUs.

In this world ranking, the ten most relevant container ports are located on the Asian continent, and seven of them are in China, which accounts for more than a third of world traffic.

The first port to change the strong dominance of the East is Rotterdam which managed to move 14.5 million TEUs, 6% more than in 2017.

Present and future in the container

The main trends in container shipping today are:

• Concentration of large maritime corporations. Currently between 60-70% of the current fleet is concentrated in ten large operators.
• New regulation: IMO 2020. It determines that the limit of sulphur content of the ships must be, from next year, of 0.5% of mass/mass as maximum. The current limit is 3.5%. We have already dealt with this issue here.
• Increase in new technologies. More and more shipping companies are opting for greater digitalisation and computerisation systems in all transport processes.
• Political, commercial and tariff uncertainties. The trade war between the United States and China or the implementation of Brexit are issues that affect transport.

The history of the container

The origins of the container date back to 1937 in the United States. A truck hauler, Malcolm McLean, thought there should be some way to avoid the double task of unloading goods from a truck for subsequent loading onto a ship. The invention could also mean greater security for the goods, lower costs and greater speed. In May of the same year, the Geneva Customs Convention was signed, which already provided for the customs rules that should apply to this means of transport.