Vehicle traffic in Spanish ports in 2019: the year in review

Spanish ports handled 3.41 million new vehicles in 2019, 2.5% less than in 2018 (88,332 new vehicles 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 2017–2025 series is 2023, with 3.89 million new vehicles: 2019 was 12.5% below it and ranks 6th of the 9 years with data.

In the 2019 ranking, the ports moving up on 2018 are Barcelona (from 2nd to 1st) and Vigo (from 4th to 3rd); those moving down are Valencia (from 1st to 2nd) and Santander (from 3rd to 4th).

Passenger vehicles (the cars carried on ferries): 5.92 million vehicles in 2019, 7.4% more than in 2018. Santa Cruz de Tenerife ranks first on this measure, with 1.47 million vehicles.

Barcelona ranks first among port authorities with 777,178 new vehicles in 2019 (4% less than in 2018). It is followed by Valencia (720,857 new vehicles) and Vigo (482,640 new vehicles). Together, the three account for 58.2% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by Málaga (+15.8%), Tarragona (+8.5%) and Pasaia (+7.3%); the steepest falls by Valencia (−11.9%), Las Palmas (−9.2%) and Santander (−4.8%). 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 Santander (4th, 466,158 new vehicles, −4.8%), Pasaia (5th, 273,275 new vehicles, +7.3%), Tarragona (6th, 211,210 new vehicles, +8.5%), Baleares (7th, 180,795 new vehicles, −2.0%), Las Palmas (8th, 96,835 new vehicles, −9.2%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (9th, 75,999 new vehicles, +0.8%) and Málaga (10th, 74,493 new vehicles, +15.8%).

At the bottom of the table are Motril (341 new vehicles), Sevilla (269 new vehicles) and Ferrol-San Cibrao (7 new vehicles), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 79.9% of the total and 6 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 1.3%. 11 of the 21 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2018, 6 of them by double digits, and 10 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2019 with data, 5 are above the same month of 2018 and 7 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is up 0.2% on the same months of 2018; the largest year-on-year difference was in May (down 10.9%); the highest point in the series was March, at 341,691, and the lowest August, at 168,291.

Puertos del Estado separates vehicles shipped as cargo (new vehicles exported or imported on car carriers or ro-ro ships) from vehicles travelling with passengers (the cars of ferry travellers). The first measures automotive industry logistics; the second follows passenger traffic to the Balearic and Canary Islands and across the Strait.

Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · vehicles as cargo, annual series or see the original source.