Santander (EFE).- The Port of Santander already has a container terminal, built and managed by Boluda Maritime Terminals, which with its two cranes will increase the annual traffic of the port facility by one million tons and will provide savings to the Cantabrian exporters estimated at “750 euros per container”.
The Santander Port Authority, which has been behind this terminal for more than 30 years, had a freight traffic of 6.7 million tons in 2022, a figure that it now hopes to exceed thanks to this terminal located on the northern breakwater of Raos .
Next to the tent in which “Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander” was presented, the name given to this great infrastructure, was the Isabella B ship, the first in history to unload its containers in the Cantabrian capital through this terminal, which has involved a global investment of 30 million euros.
His presentation was attended by the President of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, the Minister of Industry, Transport and Commerce, Javier López Marcano, the Government delegate in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones; and the presidents of Puertos del Estado, Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena; Boluda Maritime Corporation, Vicente Boluda; or the Santander Port Authority, Francisco Martín.
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Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander occupies an area of 67,000 square meters and has a berthing line of 569 meters of quay.
In addition to the office building, the two Post-Panamax cranes with a height of more than 60 meters and a lifting capacity of 76 tons stand out in this facility.
This new terminal will have a minimum annual traffic of 40,000 TEUS (20-foot containers) and a maximum capacity of 100,000, and the creation of 21 direct, 720 induced and more than 1,000 indirect jobs is expected.
The objective of Boluda Corporación Marítima is, during the forty years of the concession, to improve the connections of the Port, offer innovative solutions that make Santander a “reference enclave in port sustainability” and help the development of the autonomous community and its employment.
Wink to Cantabria
“We hope that it can be many more (years)”, said its president, who has announced that, in addition to the Isabella B, a ship called “Santuca” will moor in Santander, in homage to Cantabria and, more specifically, to Liébana, where the Monastery of Santo Toribio is located.
In addition, Boluda has lamented that in order to achieve “the full potential” of Spanish ports, there is still “a lack of railway corridors that connect Spain.” The President of Cantabria agreed with this idea, highlighting the advances in the future arrival of high-speed trains from Madrid and the fast train to Bilbao.
Revilla has highlighted the importance of the future logistics area of La Pasiega, whose first phase nine companies choose to build, so as not to gain more meters to the sea and because it will be “a complement” to the Port. “It will be under construction before the summer,” he stated.
“We are the first country in Europe in maritime connectivity by container”, has assured the president of Puertos del Estado, while the Cantabrian Minister of Industry has affirmed that this terminal, in addition to assuming “an important transformation” of the skyline of the Port of Santander , will leave “in a reference” the figures of previous years of merchandise traffic and foreign trade, which in 2023 exceeded 3,500 million euros, because they are going to be exceeded.
“We have been waiting for this moment for more than 30 years,” said the president of the Santander Port Authority, who has argued that this terminal will promote greater market accessibility and economic and environmental savings.
The Government delegate believes that Cantabria already has “a true Port of the 21st century” thanks, in part, to the investments made by the Executive of Spain, which has been reviewed.