The president of Port Tarragona, Santiago J. Castellà, assumes the presidency of the association Barcelona Catalunya Centre Logístic (BCL). Until now, BCL had been presided over, in alternation, by the port of Barcelona or by the Consorcio de la Zona Franca. Now, as a result of a new stage of strategic relations between the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, both port authorities have agreed to share the presidency period of the organization, so Port Tarragona joins as the third body able to hold the presidency of this association dedicated to promoting the logistic competitiveness of Catalonia.
The change of presidency has been approved in the general assembly of BCL. The top representatives of the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona presented the proposal to the executive committee of the association, which has supported it. Now, the decision has been ratified by the entire membership. In this way, the president of the port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell, cedes the presidency to Santiago J. Castellà, who had already been chosen as a member of the executive committee in the last assembly held this past March. The BCL assembly has agreed to modify its statutes to add a fourth vice-presidency, which Carbonell will assume.
The new presidency marks a change in trend that demonstrates the weight that Port Tarragona is gaining within the logistic landscape, as well as the need to promote alliances and synergies to consolidate the leadership of Catalonia as a reference region on the logistics map of Europe and the Mediterranean. The alliance between the port authorities of Barcelona and Tarragona responds to the shared need to have competitive logistic infrastructures that guarantee their growth. In this sense, it is worth noting that the two large ports of state interest in Catalonia are collaborating to promote the creation of railway highways and new intermodal terminals within their hinterlands that promote efficient and modern logistics.
Logistic Collaboration
“The port of Barcelona and the port of Tarragona are opening a new stage with the shared will to promote a broader vision of collaboration that includes other primary logistic infrastructures for the country,” explained the president of the port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell. “Sharing the presidency of BCL between both institutions allows us to reinforce this collaboration and give visibility to a joint strategy that benefits the entire sector,” he stated. In this line, Carbonell added that “only 54 nautical miles separate the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, but we are united by a firm will to work together as if we were a single infrastructure at the service of the Catalan and Mediterranean logistic system.”
For his part, the president of Port Tarragona and new president of BCL, Santiago J. Castellà, thanked “the port of Barcelona, the Consorcio de la Zona Franca and the rest of the partners for facilitating this new stage of greater collaboration that will place Catalonia at the forefront of logistics.” Castellà assured that “Barcelona is the city that projects us to the world as a modern and competitive Mediterranean region. Its potential, and that of all of Catalonia, will be even greater if synergies are promoted with the rest of the territories.
In this sense, the collaboration between the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona to alternate the presidency of BCL will allow us to promote a joint strategy that benefits the Catalan and Mediterranean logistics system.
Likewise, Santiago J. Castellà has highlighted the opportunity that Port Tarragona holding the presidency of a benchmark association in the logistics field like BCL represents for the logistics and business sector of Tarragona. Furthermore, he has emphasized the coincidence in time of this new stage of BCL with the moment of change that the port of Tarragona is experiencing: “Tarragona is the second metropolitan area of Catalonia and is the area that will provide the most growth opportunities to the Catalan economy. Many of these opportunities are related to the logistics sector and with the development of strategic infrastructures and projects of the port of Tarragona.” The arrival of the European gauge to the port, the commissioning of our Guadalajara – Marchamalo intermodal terminal, the boost in the La Boella railway terminal, the upcoming tender for the multipurpose terminal for containers and general cargo at the Andalusia Wharf and the ZAL will open a new scenario that will change many logics of current logistics, causing Tarragona to gain more weight and become a true benchmark logistics hub in the northeastern peninsula.
