Vehicle traffic in Spanish ports in 2020: the year in review

Spanish ports handled 2.87 million new vehicles in 2020, 15.9% less than in 2019 (540,141 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: 2020 was 26.4% below it and ranks 7th of the 9 years with data.

The top ten positions in the 2020 ranking are the same, and in the same order, as in 2019.

Passenger vehicles (the cars carried on ferries): 3.13 million vehicles in 2020, 47.1% less than in 2019. Santa Cruz de Tenerife ranks first on this measure, with 1.1 million vehicles.

Barcelona ranks first among port authorities with 815,859 new vehicles in 2020 (5% more than in 2019). It is followed by Valencia (533,137 new vehicles) and Vigo (512,051 new vehicles). Together, the three account for 65% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by Vigo (+6.1%) and Barcelona (+5.0%); the steepest falls by Málaga (−51.7%), Baleares (−41.3%) and Tarragona (−39.3%). 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 Santander (4th, 324,424 new vehicles, −30.4%), Pasaia (5th, 236,381 new vehicles, −13.5%), Tarragona (6th, 128,178 new vehicles, −39.3%), Baleares (7th, 106,104 new vehicles, −41.3%), Las Palmas (8th, 62,745 new vehicles, −35.2%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (9th, 59,630 new vehicles, −21.5%) and Málaga (10th, 35,972 new vehicles, −51.7%).

At the bottom of the table are Vilagarcía (298 new vehicles), Castellón (158 new vehicles) and Ferrol-San Cibrao (26 new vehicles), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 84.5% of the total and 5 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 1.8%. 9 of the 22 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2019, 7 of them by double digits, and 13 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2020 with data, 1 are above the same month of 2019 and 11 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is down 8.3% on the same months of 2019; the largest year-on-year difference was in April (down 80.6%); the highest point in the series was November, at 283,645, and the lowest April, at 56,463.

Between 2017 and 2020 the figure went from 3.48 M to 2.87 M, a decrease of 17.8% over 3 years (−6.3% a year on average). The best year was 2018 (3.49 M) and the worst 2020 (2.87 M).

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.