Port and logistics glossary

Ports

Port traffic

Port traffic is the total number of tonnes passing through a port in a given period: the cargo that is loaded, unloaded or transhipped, plus fresh fish, ship supplies and internal traffic.

373 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

A port authority is the public body that manages one or more of the Spanish State’s ports of general interest: it administers the land and the infrastructure, awards the concessions and collects the port dues.

373 million tonnesSystem · January–August 2026

Port call

A port call is each entry of a ship into a port to load, unload, embark passengers, refuel or receive any other service.

108,461 merchant ship callsYear to date · January–August 2026

Ship supplies

Ship supplies are what a vessel takes on for its own consumption during a call: fuel, water, provisions and stores. In port statistics they are counted in tonnes, separately from cargo.

7.97 million tonnesTotal supplies (fuel, water, provisions and stores)

Bunkering

Bunkering is the supply of fuel to ships for their own propulsion. It is done at the quay, from lorries or pipelines, or at anchor and at berth by barges that come alongside the ship.

6.58 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Fresh fish

Fresh fish is the fish and shellfish that fishing vessels land at a port without freezing or processing, for first sale at the fish market. Port statistics count it in tonnes, separately from cargo.

84,006 tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Containers

TEU

A TEU is the unit used to measure container traffic: it is equivalent to one container twenty feet long, about six metres. A forty-foot container, the most common, counts as two TEU.

12.6 million TEUYear to date · January–August 2026

Transhipment

Transhipment is the operation by which a container is unloaded from one ship and loaded onto another in the same port, without leaving the port area. Spanish statistics call it traffic in transit.

6.47 million TEUYear to date · January–August 2026

Hub port

A hub port is a container port where most of the cargo is transhipped from one ship to another.

5.39 million TEUTranshipment TEU

Containerised cargo

Containerised cargo is the cargo that travels inside containers.

126.6 million tonnesOf which, containerised cargo

Cargo

Liquid bulk

Liquid bulk is liquid cargo carried unpackaged, directly in the ship’s tanks: crude oil, diesel, petrol, natural gas, chemicals, oils or biofuels.

123.2 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Dry bulk

Dry bulk is dry cargo carried unpackaged, loose in the ship’s hold: cereals, coal, iron ore, cement and clinker, fertilisers, scrap metal or animal feed.

52.8 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

General cargo

General cargo is all cargo carried in units, packages or pieces rather than in bulk.

186.4 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Ro-ro

Ro-ro traffic, or wheeled cargo, is that of goods that enter and leave the ship on wheels, over a ramp: lorries, semi-trailers, flatbed trailers and new vehicles.

50.6 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Intermodal transport unit (ITU)

An ITU, or intermodal transport unit, is each lorry, trailer, semi-trailer or flatbed trailer that boards a ro-ro ship with its load. It is the unit ports use to count lorry traffic.

381,467 transport units (lorries, trailers and platforms)Year to date · January–August 2026

LNG

LNG is liquefied natural gas: natural gas cooled to about 162 degrees below zero until it becomes liquid, which reduces its volume some six hundred times and allows it to be carried on LNG carriers.

10.5 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Clinker

Clinker is the intermediate product of cement manufacture: grey nodules that come out of the kiln when limestone and clay are fired at about 1,450 degrees.

5.6 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Biofuel

A biofuel is a liquid fuel obtained from organic matter instead of petroleum: vegetable oils, used cooking oil, animal fats or agricultural residues.

3.57 million tonnesYear to date · January–August 2026

Vehicles as cargo

Vehicles as cargo are the new cars shipped by sea as freight, from the factory to the market where they are sold. They are counted in units and travel on specialised ships, the car carriers.

2.32 million new vehiclesYear to date · January–August 2026

Passengers

Cruise passenger

A cruise passenger is a passenger on a cruise ship. Port statistics count each cruise passenger at every port where the ship calls, whether the voyage starts or ends there or the passenger only goes ashore for a few hours.

9.22 million cruise passengersYear to date · January–August 2026

Regular-line passengers

Regular-line passengers are the travellers who use a maritime service with a fixed route, timetable and frequency, such as a ferry. Port statistics separate them from cruise passengers.

19.9 million passengersScheduled-line passengers

Operation Crossing the Strait (OPE)

Operation Crossing the Strait (Operación Paso del Estrecho, OPE) is the scheme Spain organises every summer, from 15 June to 15 September, to manage the journey of residents of Europe of Maghrebi origin who cross to Morocco and Algeria for their holidays and return afterwards.

5.74 million passengersYear to date · January–August 2026

Passenger vehicles

Passenger vehicles are the cars, motorcycles, coaches and caravans that board a ferry together with their occupants. They are counted in units, separately from the new vehicles that travel as cargo.

5.16 million vehiclesPassenger vehicles (the cars carried on ferries)

Foreign trade and customs

Trade balance

The trade balance is the difference between the value of the goods a country exports and the value of those it imports in a given period.

−€65,938 millionTrade balance

Coverage ratio

The coverage ratio is the percentage of its imports that a country pays for with its exports: the result of dividing exports by imports and multiplying by one hundred.

85.6%Coverage ratio

TARIC

TARIC is the integrated tariff of the European Union: the classification that assigns each product a ten-digit code and, with it, the customs duties and trade measures that apply to it on entering the Union.

€392,109 millionExports (12 months)

Extra-EU trade

Extra-EU trade is the exchange of goods between a European Union country and countries that do not belong to it.

69.1%Maritime share of extra-EU trade (value) · July 2026

AEO

An AEO, or authorised economic operator, is a company that customs recognises as reliable after auditing its solvency, its compliance record, its management systems and, where applicable, its security.

892 authorisationsActive AEO authorisations in Spain

Transport and logistics

Professional diesel

Professional diesel is the tax scheme under which hauliers recover part of the hydrocarbons tax on the diesel their vehicles consume.

€1.945/lMainland and Balearic reference (median)

Tonne-kilometre

The tonne-kilometre is the unit that measures transport work: it is equivalent to moving one tonne of goods over one kilometre.

2,344.3 million tonne-kilometresTonne-kilometres

Empty running

Empty running is a journey a lorry makes without a load, normally to return to its base or to collect the next consignment.

23.5%Empty running

Cost per kilometre

The cost per kilometre is what each kilometre travelled by one of its lorries costs a transport company, adding up all the operating expenses: fuel, driver, depreciation of the vehicle, insurance, tyres, maintenance, tolls and subsistence allowances.

€1.59/kmCost per km · container carrier

Public tender

A public tender is the procedure by which a public body announces that it is going to contract works, supplies or a service and invites bids from companies, in order to award the contract to the best one according to criteria published in advance.

€1,008 millionTendered in 2026 (base budget, excl. VAT)

Social Security registration

Social Security registration is the number of people registered and paying contributions, as employees or as self-employed workers.

1.19 million workersWorkers in transport and storage · August 2026

Services production index

The services production index measures every month how the volume of activity of the companies in a services sector is changing, net of the effect of prices.

126.3 pointsSpain’s logistics activity index · June 2026

Indices and tracking

LSCI

The LSCI is the index with which the United Nations trade and development agency (UNCTAD) measures how well connected a country is to the global network of scheduled container services.

402.4 pointsSpain’s maritime connectivity index (monthly LSCI)

PLSCI

The PLSCI is the port-level version of UNCTAD’s maritime connectivity index: it measures the position of each port in the global network of scheduled container services on the basis of the services that call there.

568.7 pointsBest-connected Spanish port

CPPI

The CPPI is the index with which the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence rank the world’s container ports by their efficiency, measured by the time ships spend in port.

12thBest-placed Spanish port · world rank

AIS

AIS is the automatic identification system for ships: a transponder that broadcasts by radio, every few seconds, the vessel’s identity, position, course and speed.

1.04 million tonnes a dayEstimated cargo · Spanish ports (7-day average)

Maritime chokepoint

A maritime chokepoint, or strategic maritime passage, is a strait or a canal through which a significant part of world trade has to pass because there is no short alternative.

133 transits a dayDaily transits (7-day average)

About this section

Each term comes with its definition, written by the newsroom, and the latest official figure that goes with it, which updates automatically when new data are published. For the ranking, the trend and the full table behind each figure, see the EED Data indicators.