And Churchill once said: ‘I only believe in statistics that favor me.’ The Port Authority of Las Palmas has consolidated a trajectory of sustained growth at the close of the first extended quarter of the year. The official statistical records for the period January-May place the total consolidated traffic of the port network at 14,870,306 tons. This balance represents a year-on-year increase of 1.95% compared to the same cycle of the previous year, consolidating a net gain of 284,072 tons for the port logistics system.
The president of the Gran Canaria institution, Beatriz Calzada, has focused on a logistical anomaly linked to a single-hulled barge that usually operates between the islands. The tanker carries out fuel loading processes at the Las Palmas depots but carries out the effective supply to customers at the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Maritime Authority of Las Palmas prohibits the operation of this unit in its waters due to structural safety deficiencies due to the lack of a double hull, while the Maritime Authority of the western province indeed authorizes the delivery maneuver at its docks.
This regulatory discrepancy diverts accounting flows in favor of the neighboring province. ‘If the loading of that barge were accounted for in our statistics, we would increase the supply by 131,311 tons, which would mean a 12.16% increase in our balances,’ argued Calzada. The APLP study reveals that in the previous year, a total of 255,477 tons of fuel left the eastern docks to be distributed by various operators in Tenerife, counting for tax and traffic purposes in the western statistics. If that volume had been retained in accounting, the eastern province would have closed the previous cycle with 2,858,580 tons supplied in its blue economy balance.
Despite tensions in the fuel oil segment, the logistical indicators for containers and the fishing industry reflect robust dynamism. Container movement grew by 3.96%, reaching 620,622 TEUs. Meanwhile, the cold sector experienced extraordinary expansion: frozen fish landings increased by 59.50% year-on-year overall, totaling 154,591 tons. The logistics traffic of roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) cargo also maintained its positive trend, recording a net volume increase of 6.65% to reach 2,473,404 tons, securing the port’s position as the main transshipment hub in the Mid-Atlantic.
