Work on the container terminal begins with the symbolic laying of the first stone.
The logistics platform, which will be called Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander, is expected to start operations in January 2023.
For the president of the APS this infrastructure represents "the fulfillment of one of the historical aspirations of the port, which will provide its hinterland with a practically complete catalog of services".
Santander 21-02-22. The president of the Port Authority, Francisco Martin, has assured this morning, during the ceremony of laying the first stone of the container terminal, that this is a "long awaited" news that will mean an "important support" to the companies of Cantabria since "they will have a direct way to import and export through the container, increasing, in addition, the number of destinations".
Boluda Shipping starts, with this first stone, the works of the container terminal, a logistics platform that will be called Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander and that is expected to be operational during the first quarter of 2023.
For his part, the president of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, thanked the president of Boluda Corporación Marítima, Vicente Boluda, for his confidence in Cantabria and said that this work "goes beyond investment" as it places "the port of Santander in the world". Revilla also referred to the La Pasiega Industrial Park and assured that it will be "the perfect complement for the development of the port".
In the same line has expressed the Minister of Industry, Francisco Javier López Marcano, who has advanced that "next month" will be completed the processing of La Pasiega, industrial land that will become part of the day to day of the port of Santander. Marcano has also referred to the traffic record that the Cantabrian infrastructure has reached this year and has assured that with the container terminal "that record will be pulverized in the next years".
The president of Boluda Corporación Marítima, Vicente Boluda, has shown "his pride" for "being able to contribute to the competitiveness and the improvement of the connections of Cantabria through the arrival and departure of container ships" and has assured that this "business bet" of more than 20 million euros will suppose a service "that will generate less costs to the companies and to shorten the terms of the logistic chain".
Likewise, the director of Planning and Development of Puertos del Estado, Manuel Arana, has described the new terminal as "a strategic project" that will allow "a quality leap of the first order" to serve the productive fabric and the competitiveness not only of the port of Santander but "of Spain as a whole".
In this celebration have also participated the government delegate in Cantabria, Ainoa Quiñones; the counselor of Presidency, Interior, Justice and External Action, Paula Fernández Viaña; the counselor of Education and Vocational Training, Marina Lombó; the counselor of Employment and Social Policies, Ana Álvarez and the vice-president and CEO of Boluda Shipping, Alfonso Serrat, Ignacio Boluda and Gorka Carrillo, respectively.
The concession for the works and operation of the maritime terminal was awarded by the Board of Directors of the Santander Port Authority, on December 16, 2020, to NSCT Investment, a company created by Boluda. Dragados has been the company awarded the contract for the execution of the works, which will start next March.
Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander will occupy an area of around 67,000 square meters and will have a mooring line of 472 meters of quay. Apart from the vessels of other companies that carry out the stowage and unstowage of their goods, Boluda Lines, the shipping company of Boluda Shipping -the international transport and logistics division of Boluda Corporación Marítima-, plans to make one call per week, with connections in ports such as Villagarcía, Leixoes, Setúbal, Las Palmas and Tenerife, as well as in Northern Europe.
Investment
The commitment of Boluda Maritime Terminals Santander is to be able to maintain a minimum annual traffic of import and export of goods of at least 35,000 TEUs during the first five years of the concession and, from that year onwards, of 44,823 TEUs per year.
The maritime company contemplates an investment of 20 million euros in civil works, installations, construction and purchase of machinery. An investment that, with the inclusion of equipment repairs, is estimated to reach 38.5 million euros during the 40 years set for the concession.
With this initiative, the port of Santander joins the ports in which the subsidiary Boluda Maritime Terminals, belonging to the Boluda Shipping Division, manages the logistics of stevedoring and unstowing of goods, located in Las Palmas, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, La Palma, Seville and Villagarcía. Next April, this subsidiary is expected to start operating another terminal in the Canary Islands, this time in the port of Arrecife.