Ro-ro traffic in Spanish ports in 2020: the year in review

Spanish ports handled 57.1 million tonnes of ro-ro traffic in 2020, 13.2% less than in 2019 (8.7 million less). This is the year-end balance according to Puertos del Estado’s monthly statistics, with December data for the 28 port authorities.

The high point of the 2012–2025 series is 2025, with 74.7 million tonnes: 2020 was 23.6% below it and ranks 10th of the 14 years with data.

In the 2020 ranking, the ports moving up on 2019 are Valencia (from 2nd to 1st) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (from 6th to 5th); those moving down are Baleares (from 1st to 2nd) and Las Palmas (from 5th to 6th).

Valencia ranks first among port authorities with 11.2 million tonnes in 2020 (10.8% less than in 2019). It is followed by Baleares (10.7 million) and Barcelona (9.67 million). Together, the three account for 55.4% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by Bahía de Algeciras (+1.1%) and Almería (+0.9%); the steepest falls by Baleares (−21.5%), Las Palmas (−17.2%) and Barcelona (−16.3%). 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 Bahía de Algeciras (4th, 9.14 million, +1.1%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (5th, 3.74 million, −8.3%), Las Palmas (6th, 3.69 million, −17.2%), Santander (7th, 2.15 million, −1.6%), Vigo (8th, 1.02 million, −9.6%), Bahía de Cádiz (9th, 765,026 tonnes, −10.9%) and Bilbao (10th, 717,321 tonnes, −14.8%).

At the bottom of the table are Sevilla (133,076 tonnes), Alicante (49,980 tonnes) and Ferrol-San Cibrao (46,908 tonnes), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 77.9% of the total and 6 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 7.5%. 5 of the 22 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2019, 3 of them by double digits, and 17 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2020 with data, 3 are above the same month of 2019 and 9 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is down 4.9% on the same months of 2019; the largest year-on-year difference was in April (down 41.3%); the highest point in the series was February, at 5.34 M, and the lowest April, at 3.33 M.

Between 2012 and 2020 the figure went from 41.7 M to 57.1 M, an increase of 36.9% over 8 years (+4.0% a year on average). The best year was 2019 (65.8 M) and the worst 2012 (41.7 M).

Ro-ro (roll-on/roll-off) traffic is cargo that is driven on and off the ship: lorries, trailers, platforms and new vehicles. Puertos del Estado measures it in tonnes and in ITUs (intermodal transport units: each lorry, trailer or platform counts as one). It is the traffic of the Motorways of the Sea and of the lines to the Balearic and Canary Islands and North Africa.

Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · ro-ro traffic by port, annual series or see the original source.