ABP suing El Prat builders

Barcelona Port Authority has awarded a €5.1M contract to the Vías-Infesa UTE (ad hoc joint venture) for the second phase expansion of the railway terminal on Muelle Príncep d’Espanya. The work, which will take 13 months, will considerably expand the terminal’s rail intermodal capabilities.

The announcement on 8 September that APM Terminals had reached an agreement with Pérez y Cía to acquire its majority stake in Spain’s Grup Marítim TCB came as a surprise to the industry.

Confidence is slowly returning, but there remains pressure on fees and charges at a time when capacity is still being increased.

Spain’s National Competition Commission (CNC) has imposed a fine of ?15.21M on the container transport association, ALTC, and a fine of ?5.26M on the Cotraport transport cooperative, for restrictive road haulage practices. In addition, it fined Barcelona Port Authority ?100,000 for allowing such practices to dominate the port’s container road haulage market.

To accommodate bigger reel sizes used in the UK paper industry, Associated British Ports (ABP) recently upgraded its handling equipment fleet at the Finland Terminal in Hull, which it operates for Finnlines, UPM-Kymmene, Myllykoski (now part of UPMKymmene) and M-real. The terminal now handles over 70% of all forest products at the port.

Barcelona Port Authority (ABP) and Gran Europa have set up a company to manage a new inland terminal at Yunquera de Henares in the Spanish province of Guadalajara. According to ABP’s president, Sixte Cambra, this new facility is one of a number that the port wants to establish across southern Europe as a means of extending its hinterland.