Transport sector: Port of Bilbao event

This week, logistics and transport company managers from Aragon participated in the event organized by ATEIA Aragon OLT (Association of Freight Forwarders, International Forwarders and Related Companies of Aragon) in collaboration with Bilbao Port. This event was held at the Innovation Center for Vocational Training of Aragon (CIFPA) and the theme was: Maritime Future in Aragon, multimodal connection and its contribution to the reduction of the carbon footprint. The case of the Port of Bilbao.

At the meeting, the Director of Operations, Commercial and Logistics of the Port Authority of Bilbao, Andima Ormaetxe, spoke of the rail nodes with which this port facility works, among which is the city of Zaragoza, which makes possible a competitive and sustainable transport by contributing to decarbonization. Ormaetxe stated that a significant percentage of containers arriving in Bilbao do so by rail. He also referred to the effort that shipping companies are making in relation to the environment, such as the development of green corridors in the Atlantic arc.

The representative of the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce, Nieves Agreda, presented a series of data on the volume of imports and exports. She indicated that Aragon continues to register very positive figures and that, in some months, they place the Aragonese Community above the national average.

For her part, the president of the Association of Shipping Agents and Stevedores of the Port of Bilbao (ACBE), Virginia Navarro, took advantage of this meeting in Zaragoza to comment on the exponential growth that Aragon is having in the sector with an important concentration of freight forwarding firms that are opening offices in the city of Zaragoza. Regarding the Aragon-Bilbao port connections, Navarro referred to advantages such as geographical proximity and the connection with the dry port of the Aragonese capital.

The event was also attended by Jorge Peidro, representative of Finnlines, a company with links mainly to northern Europe and the Baltic, and F. Jaber Bringas, president of Uniport Bilbao. Bringas stressed the need to expand the training offer in order to have specialized transport and logistics professionals.

The round of talks ended with the intervention of Pedro Sas, managing director of Aragón Plataforma Logística. Mr. Sas presented the logistics platforms of the three Aragonese provinces (PLAZA, PLATEA, PL Fraga, Monzón Intermodal Terminal, PLHUS and PL Zuera) and also referred to the future railway highway that will link Algeciras with PLAZA and the impetus being given to the Cantabrian-Mediterranean axis.

The event ended with a round table discussion with the participation of Miguel Marín, from Cosco Shipping Ports Zaragoza Rail Terminal; Pedro Sas, managing director of Aragón Plataforma Logística; Andina Ormaetxe, from Port Bilbao; Nieves Agreda, from the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce and Manuel Gallegos from the Sesé Group.

This round table discussed the importance of people as the driving force of this sector and their training and qualification. In this regard, the importance of entities such as CIFPA and its relationship with Vocational Training, the University of Zaragoza and the Zaragoza Logistics Centre (ZLC) was pointed out. The speakers agreed on the need to continue improving customs services to facilitate the operability of companies.

Finally, it was noted that it is important that for all issues affecting the sector (decarbonization, digitalization, innovation, etc.) it is necessary to seek solutions collectively between ports, platforms and companies. They concluded by pointing out that the country must continue to boost communication infrastructures.