BALEARIC SEA PORTS ARE BUSIER THAN EVER

LLUIS Badía, the President of Tarragona's Port Authority, announced yesterday that freight traffic between the Balearic ports and Tarragona grew 10 percent between January and April this year compared to the first four-month period of 2002. Badía gave a press conference in order to announce a forthcoming presentation to importers, exporters and shipping companies to be given at a hotel in Palma on 27 May. The Congress will outline the new services of the installations under Badía's control.
Badía was accompanied by Francesc Triay, the President of the Balearic Port Authorities and by Miquel Lladó, the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Majorca, Ibiza and Formentera whose organisations will also be promoted at the presentation to be given next Tuesday. According to information sources, during the last year 2.26 million tons of all kinds of merchandise were transported in 28'185 containers between the port of Tarragona and the ports of the Balearic islands (Alcudia, Ibiza, Mahón and Palma). Out of the total of freight transported between the Balearic islands and the port in Catalunia, 94 percent was shipped from Tarragona to the archipelago. Tarragona, which accounts for 22 percent of the Balearic's freight traffic, has its principal Balearic connection in Alcudia, which last year boasted 81 percent of this merchandise transportation. Of the 1.84 million tonnes that were shipped in 2002 between Tarragona and Alcudia, 78 percent was coal discharged daily in Majorca by the vessel Playa de Alcudia, destined essentially for the electricity centre in Es Murterar. As regards the other ports in the islands, Palma monopolises 13 percent of freight traffic between the Balearics and Tarragona, Ibiza two percent and Mahón one percent. Triay highlighted the importance of the port of Tarragona for the Balearics and pointed out that its President had been nominated the day before as the head of the Mediterranean Ports Community, a pressure group bringing the interests of the Spanish ports of Tarragona, Cartagena and the Baleares, the italian ports of Livorno and Salerno, and the French ports of Sete, Toulon and Bastia, to bear at the European Union. Badía put forward the idea that this “lobby” promotes a project to boost short distance maritime traffic in the Mediterranean, which would help reduce the need to transport freight by road thereby bringing costs down. With regard to the freeing up of port tariffs that a Government draft bill established, the President of the Port of Tarragona reacted favourably to this measure. “We have had six years without an index-linked increase in our costs. The freeing up of tariffs will benefit all of us, but especially those ports which are most competitive”, said Badía. es