Port Technology — 2024-01-22
Members Corner
The Port of Valencia (PAV) is maintaining its operations on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean routes despite the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea.
Due to risks associated with the Red Sea conflict, major shipping corporations with 400-metre-long containerships stopped visiting Valencian terminals via the Suez Canal and different stopovers in the Mediterranean.
Néstor Martínez, Deputy Director General for Business Development of PAV, said: “At the moment, the Port of Valencia has sufficient capacity to withstand this situation. There was a problem that was detected at the beginning due to the delay in navigation that this crisis generated, but now it has been solved.”
For the protection of their crews and products, these firms chose to travel around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, a round voyage that increased the crossing time by 10 to 12 days, resulting in a delay in arrival at the port of destination.
The delay had an impact on these ships’ logistical chain, which had previously arrived at Valencia via Suez prior to the Red Sea conflict.
According to Martínez: “The experience that the pandemic brought us, not only to the Port of Valencia, but to the entire world logistics chain, to the ports, to the carriers and operators, means that everyone is doing their bit to make this work.
“There is no cause for alarm at the moment. The Port of Valencia has sufficient capacity to withstand this situation. There was a problem that was detected at the beginning due to the delay of those 10 or 12 days, and it has now been solved.”
The ongoing Red Sea crisis has plunged service networks into uncertainty, resulting in the second-largest capacity drop since the Suez Canal blockage.