The complementary nature of the ports of Morocco and Spain

The Barceló Hotel in Tangier hosted the 10th Hispano-Moroccan Maritime, Transport and Logistics Meeting organised by the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the Tangier city.

On the occasion of this meeting, Atalayar spoke with José García Fuentes, president of the Port of Motril in Granada, who emphasised that the Spanish and Moroccan ports are complementary, far from competing with each other, and who also highlighted the great logistical importance of the port of Granada. 

Mr Fuentes, what was your objective in the 10th Hispano-Moroccan, Maritime, Transport and Logistics Meeting?

Logically, the objective of the port of Motril is to position itself as one of the options, I would say the best option, for those traffics between Morocco and Spain, between Spain and Morocco; and, not in vain, we are the port with the greatest variety of connections with the north of Morocco. We have a regular line to Nador, a regular line to Al Hoceima and also our star line, which is the regular line to Tangier Med, where the port of Motril has a series of undeniable advantages.  

Firstly, a reduction in the carbon footprint, that is to say, fewer CO2 emissions when transiting through Motril. 

Secondly, the objective is rather economic.  

Thirdly, we are the closest port to Madrid, a perfectly connected port with a very fast exit from the port directly to the motorway without crossing any urban centre, which is an advantage in terms of operability.  

The size of our port makes it very operational and I believe it is the best option for these traffics from Morocco. And it is true that when all the operators are getting to know the strength of our port, they are often surprised by this good offer, by these good characteristics that it has and, logically, with regard to this event, we have to make a very positive balance because it is true that we have had many meetings, many encounters and, finally, I believe that the commercial result for the port of Motril is going to be very good.  

Why does the collaboration with Morocco really work? Some people think that there is a very aggressive competitiveness or some kind of threat, but the reality is that by collaborating with the Moroccan ports, the benefit is common to all the Spanish and Moroccan ports in the Mediterranean. 

Absolutely. We are complementary ports. It is normal for traffic between Europe and Africa to transit through the Mediterranean, through the Alboran Sea, and there we are perfectly complementary ports. 

That is to say, they are transit routes between Africa and Europe and Morocco plays a very important role there, as do the ports of southern Spain, of the south of the peninsula. Collaboration is absolute, our relationship with the Moroccan ports is exceptional. We have an excellent relationship of cooperation and collaboration with Tangier Med, as we also have with Al Hoceima and Nador. And we have already visited the future port of Nador-West Med, which is practically finished and is expected to be operational next year. Motril will also be the natural port of Nador-West Med, because it will be the closest peninsular port to this new macro-port, which is a replica of Tangier Med in the eastern region and which is the object of significant investment and a really important commitment on the part of Morocco. 

You were talking about the connectivity of the port of Motril, the motorway, and the high-speed railway has also reached Granada. The Mediterranean corridor would be a fantastic dream for the development of the area, wouldn't it?

Yes, well, rail connections are fundamental, multimodality in the ports is also fundamental. It is true that we are a port which, in ro-ro traffic, in road traffic, we have no competition due to our location, the variety of lines, the proximity, the shortening of time, which in the end implies a reduction in the carbon footprint, which is also important when selling to our clients, but, effectively, rail connections are absolutely fundamental.  

I believe that the train is the means of transport of the 21st century because of its reduced emissions, its speed, its versatility and, logically, we are fighting precisely for this connection, not only to the Mediterranean corridor, which can be interesting, but in our particular case to the central corridor that connects us directly to Madrid as the closest port to the capital of Spain. 

Let us talk about the port of Motril. During the event in Tangiers, Baleària complained that it would have to have a timetable to organise itself a little better. Calsina Carré also complained about the inspection time for their trucks. In these cases, how does the port of Motril work to ensure that the cargo is dispatched in due time and form?

Precisely, the shipping company that operates the line with Tangier Med is Baleària. Now they have expanded the ship, they have almost doubled the cargo capacity on our regular line because the demand is increasing significantly. And one of the factors is precisely efficiency, speed.   

With regard to the ship and our regular line, the rotation, which right now is one, arrives at the port of Motril at approximately 7-8 in the morning and before midday there are no lorries or cargo left there, so there is a fairly good operation. 

We operate seven days a week, including holidays, from Monday to Sunday, daily, and this also means that there are no delays. The size of our port also allows for this, it is a very efficient, very effective and fast port, precisely in these transits, which is what often hinders us, especially when there are perishable products, products that need a lot of agility, because logically this is a factor to take into account when determining which port to finally leave through, and there too the port of Motril is in an excellent position.  

In any case, both the Spanish and Moroccan ports in the Mediterranean are complementary. Collaboration is going to be to the benefit of all, better than aggressive competition... 

First of all, we have a very good relationship between us, and here, each port is getting to know a little and exploiting its best potential.  In our case, we are a very competitive port for ro-ro traffic, we cannot compete with Algeciras in container traffic, obviously, and the dimensions of the ports are completely different and so are our objectives.  The neighbouring ports are ports that each have their own market share, so we are not in competition with each other, but we also complement each other perfectly in terms of each other's specialisation. 

Another of the characteristics of the port of Motril is its good road accessibility, which means that we also specialise in cargo projects, i.e. the blades of the largest wind generators manufactured in Spain arrive there every day, each one more than 74 metres long.  

This is difficult to reach any other port in the south because most of them are surrounded by the city, they do not have direct access from the motorway to the port without having to pass through any urban centre. Direct access also makes us a port specialised in this type of cargo. 

In short, each one has its potential and logically we exploit it and make it known within the maximum loyalty and the maximum camaraderie that we also have between the heads of each port, especially the Andalusian ones. 

Finally, the 2030 Football World Cup poses many opportunities, but also many challenges. What can the port of Motril do? How is the organisation of the Football World Cup between Spain, Morocco and Portugal being considered?

This transcends a little the port activity because it is an event that is more a question of State than anything else, but it is true that I believe that the Spanish ports in general are prepared for this eventuality, for everything that may come, for all the needs that will logically increase in many things, in construction materials, for infrastructures, in the commercial provision itself; and, for all of this, the ports are perfectly prepared with what we have now, without the need to make any new investment that is not aimed fundamentally at sustainability, but with the capacity to absorb the increase in traffic that may be caused by the holding of this great event.