Visit of the secretary of Transport of the USA, Anthony Foxx, to Valencia’s port.
Julio García. Madrid.
The secretary of Transport of the USA, Anthony Foxx, has visited the terminal of containers of the logistic company Noatum in Valencia’s port and he has showed his interest in the railway operative of its installations, which moves 120,000 containers from and to Madrid.
Valencia’s port is one of the reference railway centres of goods in the Iberian Peninsula. The broker connecting the centre of the country is the most efficient of Spain, with a railway share close to 30% of the goods from and to Madrid-Valencia. In 2013, the railway traffic of containers increased 1.2% until 112,124 containers transported (TEUs), which represents 5.1% of the total of TEUs moved by this port.
In this visit, Foxx was accompanied by the president of Ports of the State, José Llorca; the presidents of Adif and Renfe, Gonzalo Ferre and Julio Gómez-Pomar, respectively; the government delegate to the Valencian Community, Serafín Castellano; the president of the Port Authority, Rafael Aznar; and Noatum’s managing director, Douglas Shultz.
During the visit, they saw Noatum’s public terminal of containers and they attended the loading and assembly operative in the yards of railway tracks. At the moment, this logistic company moves more than 70% of the railway traffic managed by Valencia’s port.
Valencia’s port, a referent in the sea-port relations between Spain and the USA
The United States is the third country of the world with which Spain has the most trade relations by sea, only exceeded by Italy and Nigeria. The almost 17 million tons of goods and the more than 700,000 containers handled (TEUs) make the USA a preferential partner for Spain.
In the case of Valencia’s port, this referent is also happening in the sea-port relations between Spain and the USA, since close to 20% of the goods (3.2 million tons) and 37.5% of the containers (270,300 TEUs) were handled in its installations and had North America as origin or destination.
At the moment, the port authority of Valencia is working on a project to improve the land accessibility to its terminals which will mean and investment close to 70 million euros during the period of 2010-2012, and will provide the necessary connections to all its installations, both roads and railways, to be able to compete with other ports in the area.
