Spanish ports recorded over 40.8 million passenger movements.
The general interest ports handled 557,784,253 tons in 2024, according to the provisional figures, representing a 2.7% increase compared to 2023 (543.2 million). The 2024 fiscal year has been marked by the recovery of traffic following the 3% decline recorded the previous year, largely due to the instability in the Red Sea, which forced the diversion of traditional maritime routes from Asia, leading to a temporary increase in movements at some spanish ports.
Although total traffic last year did not surpass the record set in 2019 (564.6 million tons), general cargo handled by spanish ports did break all previous records, reaching 278.6 million tons, surpassing the 276.2 million recorded in 2021.
This general cargo figure (278.6 million tons) represents a 6.1% increase compared to 2023, mainly driven by the rise in containerized cargo (+8%). Conventional general cargo also closed the year with a 2.1% increase, reaching 85.5 million tons.
TEUs saw a 10.6% increase in 2024, totaling 18,114,516 tons, a figure that contrasts with the 4.5% decrease recorded in 2023. This strong growth is attributed to the peak in transit containers, which grew by 15.1%. Although this is a very high figure, the growth softened in the last months of the year after the summer months (20.2% in June, 19% in July, and 18.1% in August).
Solid bulk cargoes recorded a 6.4% decrease, with 84.8 million tons, weighed down by the sharp drop in coal and petroleum coke (-41.2%). Liquid bulk cargoes increased by 2.3%, reaching 178.9 million tons.
Ro-ro traffic grew by 1.1%, totaling 72.7 million tons.
The number of merchant vessels at spanish ports increased by 1%, with a total of 166,129 units, and gross tonnage grew by 2.5%.
Passenger traffic exceeded previous years’ figures, although with more moderate growth compared to 2023. In total, spanish ports recorded 40.8 million passenger movements in 2024, a +3.9% increase, compared to the 18.9% rise the previous year, when the sector was still recovering from the pandemic.
Similarly, the number of cruise passengers at spanish ports reached 12.8 million in 2024, marking a 6.7% increasecompared to the previous year.
