2019 total
170,944 merchant ship calls
First port · 2019
52,936 merchant ship calls
Series high, 2012–2025
170,944 merchant ship calls
Month with the highest figure
17,987 merchant ship calls
The 2019 balance
Spanish ports received 170,944 merchant ship calls in 2019, 2.3% more than in 2018 (3,825 merchant ship calls more). This is the year-end balance according to Puertos del Estado’s monthly statistics, with December data for the 28 port authorities.
It is the highest annual figure in the 2012–2025 series: no later year has exceeded it.
The top ten positions in the 2019 ranking are the same, and in the same order, as in 2018.
Baleares ranks first among port authorities with 52,936 merchant ship calls in 2019 (5.1% more than in 2018). It is followed by Bahía de Algeciras (29,070 merchant ship calls) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (16,132 merchant ship calls). Together, the three account for 57.4% of the total.
The largest increases were recorded by Las Palmas (+13.6%), Almería (+7.9%) and Málaga (+6.0%); the steepest falls by Castellón (−5.2%), Bilbao (−3.7%) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (−1.6%). The comparison is limited to port authorities that account for at least 1% of the total, so that an extreme swing at a small player does not distort the picture.
The rest of the top ten are Las Palmas (4th, 13,959 merchant ship calls, +13.6%), Ceuta (5th, 11,084 merchant ship calls, −0.6%), Barcelona (6th, 8,901 merchant ship calls, −1.5%), Valencia (7th, 7,891 merchant ship calls, +2.2%), Bilbao (8th, 2,818 merchant ship calls, −3.7%), Tarragona (9th, 2,545 merchant ship calls, −0.4%) and Huelva (10th, 2,491 merchant ship calls, +4.0%).
At the bottom of the table are Alicante (696 merchant ship calls), Marín y Ría de Pontevedra (507 merchant ship calls) and Vilagarcía (355 merchant ship calls), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.
The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 72.1% of the total and 7 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 13.5%. 10 of the 28 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2018, 1 of them by double digits, and 18 fell.
Of the 12 months of 2019 with data, 10 are above the same month of 2018 and 2 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is down 1% on the same months of 2018; the largest year-on-year difference was in January (up 10.5%); the highest point in the series was August, at 17,987, and the lowest February, at 11,000.
Between 2012 and 2019 the figure went from 133,582 to 170,944, an increase of 28% over 7 years (+3.6% a year on average); the last year is the high point of the series and the low was 2013 (130,170).
Top 10 · Ranking of port authorities · 2019
Month by month · 2019 vs 2018
Annual series, 2012–2019
Full table · 28 port authorities · 2019
| # | Port authorities | 2019 | Change on 2018 | 2018 | Share | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baleares | 52,936 | +5.1% | 50,366 | 31.0% | Port |
| 2 | Bahía de Algeciras | 29,070 | +0.5% | 28,913 | 17.0% | Port |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de Tenerife | 16,132 | −1.6% | 16,400 | 9.4% | Port |
| 4 | Las Palmas | 13,959 | +13.6% | 12,283 | 8.2% | Port |
| 5 | Ceuta | 11,084 | −0.6% | 11,147 | 6.5% | Port |
| 6 | Barcelona | 8,901 | −1.5% | 9,038 | 5.2% | Port |
| 7 | Valencia | 7,891 | +2.2% | 7,722 | 4.6% | Port |
| 8 | Bilbao | 2,818 | −3.7% | 2,925 | 1.6% | Port |
| 9 | Tarragona | 2,545 | −0.4% | 2,554 | 1.5% | Port |
| 10 | Huelva | 2,491 | +4.0% | 2,396 | 1.5% | Port |
| 11 | Cartagena | 2,169 | −1.5% | 2,203 | 1.3% | Port |
| 12 | Almería | 2,128 | +7.9% | 1,972 | 1.2% | Port |
| 13 | Málaga | 1,870 | +6.0% | 1,764 | 1.1% | Port |
| 14 | Castellón | 1,759 | −5.2% | 1,856 | 1.0% | Port |
| 15 | Vigo | 1,674 | −3.0% | 1,726 | 1.0% | Port |
| 16 | Santander | 1,614 | −0.7% | 1,626 | 0.9% | Port |
| 17 | Melilla | 1,606 | −9.6% | 1,776 | 0.9% | Port |
| 18 | Motril | 1,323 | −2.5% | 1,357 | 0.8% | Port |
| 19 | A Coruña | 1,213 | −0.7% | 1,221 | 0.7% | Port |
| 20 | Bahía de Cádiz | 1,193 | −0.3% | 1,197 | 0.7% | Port |
| 21 | Gijón | 1,187 | −3.4% | 1,229 | 0.7% | Port |
| 22 | Ferrol-San Cibrao | 1,086 | −3.9% | 1,130 | 0.6% | Port |
| 23 | Sevilla | 1,009 | −0.7% | 1,016 | 0.6% | Port |
| 24 | Pasaia | 933 | +2.4% | 911 | 0.5% | Port |
| 25 | Avilés | 795 | −3.4% | 823 | 0.5% | Port |
| 26 | Alicante | 696 | −4.9% | 732 | 0.4% | Port |
| 27 | Marín y Ría de Pontevedra | 507 | +1.4% | 500 | 0.3% | Port |
| 28 | Vilagarcía | 355 | +5.7% | 336 | 0.2% | Port |
What this indicator measures
Every month Puertos del Estado counts the merchant ships calling at each port authority: container ships, bulk carriers, tankers, ro-ro vessels, ferries and cruise ships. A call is one entry into port, so a scheduled ferry adds many calls a month. The number of calls measures a port’s service activity (pilotage, mooring, towage, stevedoring); ship size is measured separately, in gross tonnage (GT).
Frequently asked questions
Which was Spain’s first port by merchant ship calls in 2019?
Baleares, with 52,936 merchant ship calls in 2019, 31% of the total.
What was the merchant ship calls figure for Spanish ports in 2019?
170,944 merchant ship calls in 2019, 2.3% more than in 2018.
Was 2019 a record year?
Yes: 170,944 merchant ship calls is the highest annual figure in the 2012–2025 series.
Source
Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · ships by port or see the original source.