The new report on the economic and social impact of Valenciaport argues that the three ports of Valencia generate a total of 50,000 jobs in the Valencian Community, the equivalent of 2.5% of total regional employment. In addition, the report estimates 3,216 million euros of Gross Added Value that the port grants to the Valencian economy and its hinterland and 227 million euros of tax revenue that port economic activities leave in public coffers.
These are some of the benefits that the Valencian port-logistics sector has boasted this Thursday and with which they face the defense of the northern extension of the port of Valencia, the project that generates not a few tensions in the Valencian Community. “What we want is to demonstrate what ports mean for cities and what the reality is, not the fakes that are heard out there,” criticized Alfredo Soler, president of Propeller Valencia, the pressure group that commissioned the study presented today in the Veles e Vents building in Valencia.
For Joan Calabuig, president of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), the report can be an argument for citizens to know and “value more and more” their infrastructures. “This precisely reinforces that essential connection with our citizens,” Calabuig assured.
“Our city and culture cannot be understood without the past of the Port, that is the reality and the most international brand that we Valencians have; therefore, I insist on calling for a framework of stability”, he declared, while recalling that “companies need a strategic consensus so that they can face this future and continue to be leaders”.
During the presentation, a video was broadcast in which various businessmen and women explained the importance of the Port in their logistics costs, a point that the president of Propeller Valencia highlighted several times. Some of the speakers were in the audience today, such as the CFO of PowerCo ES, Javier Rivera, who was accompanied by the CEO of the company, Thomas Dahlem.
“Many variables enter into the choice of a gigafactory and the port of Valencia, due to its relevance and importance, has been a decisive factor when making our choice, not only the status quo but also because of the future connection with the Mediterranean corridor” , Rivera has recognized.
Also to validate the business support among the public were the president of CEV Valencia and EVAP, Eva Blasco; the president of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs, the shipping company Vicente Boluda; the president of the Camp de Morvedre Business Association, Cristina Plumed, the former president of the PAV, Aurelio Martinez; in addition to the vice-rector for Students and Entrepreneurship of the UPV, Esther Gómez.
Precisely, the 2016 UPV report presented Valenciaport as a company that generated 38,866 jobs; that is, 2.09% of total regional employment. In the study signed by AFI and Prometeia using the same methodology, based on 2019 data, Valenciaport generates almost 50,000 jobs (specifically 49,280), which represents 2.5% of the total for the Community. These 50,000 jobs would indicate that, in three years, the docks managed by the Port Authority of Valencia have employed 10,414 more people, an increase of 27% compared to 2016.
In addition to employment, the text alludes to leadership, since Valenciaport occupies the fourth position in number of TEUs managed. It represents 20% of the car traffic in the total Spanish port system, 20% of the ro-ro traffic and 40% of the total import/export containers that move through the national ports as a whole.
Although the study only includes the economic reality between 2019 and 2020, the person in charge of the study -prepared by the consultancy Analysts Financieros Internacionales (AFI) and the company Prometeia- explained that a new study would be needed to analyze the relevance of having new “quality infrastructures”.
