Crisis in the Red Sea and started a virtual commercial war between the ports of the Gulf of Aden. ValenciaAlgeciras, Barcelona and Tangier (Morocco) to intercept transshipment container traffic carried by major shipping companies operating between Asia and the Mediterranean, whose ships were diverted from Southern African routes to avoid attacks by the Houthis. Companies such as MSC, Cosco, CMA CGM and Maersk, among others, have chosen to use the Grao facility for the transfer of goods, to whose docks the first ships from South Africa were delivered last week, thus facilitating their distribution. to other Mediterranean ports with smaller ships.
Algeciras, Barcelona and Tangier-Med have also stepped up and are starting to offer more space to accommodate passengers in their container terminals. The goods carried by twenty shipping companies that decided not to pass through the Red Sea grew like an avalanche.
Valenciaport sources assure that This concentration of traffic at the Grao docks will allow for a “strategic distribution” from this location to the rest of the MediterraneanIn this way, delays of up to 12 days are being compensated for in diverting the routes to South Africa instead of passing through the Suez Canal. The Valencia Port Authority foresees a scenario in which transoceanic shipping companies will increase transshipment container traffic in the coming weeks.
In this sense, the port authority said, “The ships of these shipping companies, which have crossed the Mediterranean by performing various loading and unloading operations so far, will concentrate their operations in Valencia to distribute from Valenciaport to the rest of the Mediterranean.”
Make up for delays
With this operation, APV argues that: “Instead of going through Suez, it will try to compensate for delays of up to 12 days at the African border.”. The agency also notes that since the beginning of the crisis, “we have been in constant contact with shipping companies to adjust port services to any needs that may arise.” “We are in constant communication with the world’s leading shipping companies in order to be as efficient as possible in serving foreign trade,” he adds, according to the organization headed by Mar Chao.
Port sources indicate that shipping companies, especially European companies, are giving priority to Tanger Med, followed by Algeciras, as well as València, Malta and Gioia Tauro (Italy). These companies decided not to go any further east because this would mean entering the Mediterranean until they stopped at Piraeus (Greece) or Port Said (Egypt).
MSC, which will operate the new mega terminal at the Grao site in the northern expansion, announced it will increase freight rates between the Western Mediterranean and Asia to $5,000 per twenty-foot container and $7,100 for forty-foot containers. That’s a 40% increase compared to a year and a half ago, when rates were returning to normal after wild increases in freight rates during the coronavirus pandemic. Export freight from the Port of Valencia increased for the second consecutive month in December, according to the VCFI indicator.