Automobile traffic at the Port of Barcelona closed the first 10 months of the year with a growth of 4.6% compared to the same period in 2024, thus consolidating the growth that began in September. This good performance is due to the strong increase in imports, which have grown by 35.6%. The arrival of new ‘car carrier’ ships in Barcelona, which significantly improve service capacity, along with a rebound in sales in the European vehicle market and the growing import of Chinese cars, are facilitating the recovery of this traffic.
The traffic of full import and export containers, the figure that reflects the state of the Port of Barcelona’s hinterland economy, also maintains the positive figures of recent months. Full export containers have increased by an annual cumulative 4.6%, while import containers have increased by 5.5%. Total container traffic reached 3,150,888 TEUs in the first 10 months of the year, with a 4.4% decrease due to the decline in transits, caused by the readjustments of the main shipping lines’ maritime routes.
Traffic with the main origin and destination markets for containerized goods passing through the Port of Barcelona maintains positive figures, highlighting increases with China (4.9%), India (14.8%), South Korea (11.4%), and Saudi Arabia (4.8%).
A 0.5% decrease in total traffic
The total traffic of the Port of Barcelona between January and October of this year was 58,764,731 tons (-0.5%), in line with the traffic achieved last year. Liquid bulk continues to rise, with an increase of 17.5%, highlighting the rise in hydrocarbons: gasoline (46.6%) and natural gas (52.2%). On the other hand, solid bulk decreased by 15.6%.
Passenger traffic reached 5.19 million people, growing by 7.7%. Between January and October, ferries transported 1,623,236 passengers (+2.7%) and cruise passenger movements were 3,566,759. Of these, 2,090,542 people visited the city of Barcelona, an increase of 8.49%. Regarding short-sea shipping traffic, a total of 367,565 Intermodal Transport Units (ITUs) were moved in the Port of Barcelona, a figure slightly higher than that of 2024.
