The transport of vehicles by road, ship and train grew by 2.6% during the last year, reaching 4.59 million units. The rising figures were recorded after recording consecutive years of decline, however, they are still far from the 5.5 million cars displaced in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the annual logistics assessment reports prepared by the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac) and collected by Europa Press.
“The involvement of the main economies in the conflict (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) has had a strong impact on logistics chains, making the recovery of the automobile sector difficult,” the association assessed in a statement on Tuesday.
Specifically, vehicle transport through maritime logistics services has experienced a growth of 9.2% (2.2 million units), which is growing after three years of “continuous declines”, and rail transport has increased 10.9% (550,000 units), while the road option has been reduced by 6.5% (1.81 million units), motivated, according to Anfac, by the “contraction of international transport.”
The transport of vehicles through maritime logistics services has experienced a growth of 9.2%
According to the report, maritime transport has accounted for 48.4% of the total of 4.59 million vehicle movements, while road transport has represented 39.5% and railways 12.1%. The data also indicate that compared to the previous year, road transport has reduced its share by 3.8 percentage points, while sea transport has increased by 2.9 points and rail transport by 0.9 points.
Production weighed down by the crisis
Regarding the reasons for the decrease recorded in road transport, Anfac has highlighted that the situation has been “complicated” in Spain, with a loss of 25% of vehicle transport trucks compared to 2019, due to the low activity that “has burdened” production and the market since the health crisis. It has also stressed that rail transport has not had greater growth due to the problems caused by the lack of drivers, wagons and machines.
Regarding the assessment that automobile brands make of each of the types of transport, the sea route is the one that has obtained the highest score, specifically, an average of 3.9 out of a total of 5, one point less than before. one year. In this sense, the report analyzes the eight most relevant Spanish ports (Barcelona, Málaga, Pasaia, Sagunto, Santander, Tarragona, Valencia and Vigo) in terms of import and export of vehicles and through which the 81, 2% of units transported by sea.
The port of Santander occupies the first position with a score of 4.4, followed by Tarragona and Sagunto, which shares second position with a 4.2, Pasaia (Guipúzcoa) is third (4.1). Barcelona, Valencia and Vigo occupy fourth position with 3.7 each, and Malaga is last with 3.5.
Meanwhile, road transport obtained a score of 3.7 points, the same as a year ago, while the rail option obtained an average rating from the brands of 3.2 out of 5, one tenth less than in 2021.