Spanish ports ranked by container traffic in 2021: the year in review

Spanish ports handled 17.7 million TEU in 2021, 5.6% more than in 2020 (942,778 TEU more). These are the final figures from Puertos del Estado’s statistical yearbook for the 28 port authorities.

The high point of the 2012–2025 series is 2025, with 18.6 million TEU: 2021 was 4.8% below it and ranks 3rd of the 14 years with data. At the end of 2021 it was the highest figure in the series, which starts in 2012; it was later exceeded in 2024 and 2025.

In the 2021 ranking, the ports moving up on 2020 are Málaga (from 11th to 8th) and Bahía de Cádiz (from 12th to 9th); those moving down are Alicante (from 8th to 10th). The top three positions are unchanged.

Transhipment TEU: 9.41 million TEU in 2021, 0.3% more than in 2020. Bahía de Algeciras ranks first on this measure, with 4.08 million TEU.

Valencia ranks first among port authorities with 5.6 million TEU in 2021 (3.2% more than in 2020). It is followed by Bahía de Algeciras (4.8 million) and Barcelona (3.53 million). Together, the three account for 78.6% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by Bahía de Cádiz (+97.3%), Málaga (+91.2%) and Barcelona (+19.4%); the steepest falls by Bahía de Algeciras (−6.0%). 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, 1.18 million, +13.8%), Bilbao (5th, 538,917 TEU, +10.9%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (6th, 435,909 TEU, +15.7%), Vigo (7th, 239,302 TEU, +4.6%), Málaga (8th, 236,811 TEU, +91.2%), Bahía de Cádiz (9th, 214,868 TEU, +97.3%) and Alicante (10th, 173,058 TEU, +9.5%).

At the bottom of the table are Ceuta (5,874 TEU), Avilés (22 TEU) and A Coruña (3 TEU), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 88.2% of the total and 4 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 4.4%. 16 of the 27 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2020, 10 of them by double digits, and 11 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2021 with data, 9 are above the same month of 2020 and 3 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is down 2.1% on the same months of 2020; the largest year-on-year difference was in April (up 17.5%); the highest point in the series was July, at 1.52 M, and the lowest February, at 1.37 M.

Between 2012 and 2021 the figure went from 14.1 M to 17.7 M, an increase of 25.9% over 9 years (+2.6% a year on average); the last year is the high point of the series and the low was 2013 (13.9 M).

The TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard measure of container traffic. Puertos del Estado counts every container handled, full and empty, and separates import and export boxes, domestic cabotage and transhipment containers, which arrive on one ship and leave on another without entering Spain. In Algeciras and Valencia transhipment makes up more than half of the total.

Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · containers or see the original source.