The ordeal for MH Bland in Las Palmas port
and the Boluda status quo
The attempt by the Gibraltar-based multinational to carry out a key investment at the Cambulloneros quay clashes with constant delays on a board dominated by operators blessed by the ’78 Regime. Apart from the Treaty of Utrecht, people talk a lot about Gibraltar but overlook the fact that its port spaces, which now compete with Tenerife and Las Palmas for bunkering, were built by Agromán when it was owned by the Industrial Corporation Banesto in the era of Mario Conde, with the financial firm already buried, with a bank-entry record in the Rock.
Indeed, deep within Las Palmas Port, investment calendars rarely follow simple commercial logic. The administrative ordeal facing the Gibraltar-based company MH Bland Marine Services to deploy its infrastructure at the Cambulloneros quay is a manual on the non-tariff barriers awaiting new entrants in the Middle Atlantic. On July 23, 2026, the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of Las Palmas has on its agenda item 2.2: the request for a new extension submitted by the group from the Rock to verify the investment commitments linked to its demanial concession.
The chronology of this file borders on procedural absurdity. Granted the concession in May 2023 over a strategic plot of 2,607 square meters in Functional Area 7, the company founded in 1810 by Marcus Henry Bland has spent more than three years navigating a bureaucratic obstacle course. The projected investment aims to put into service a ship-warehouse, a yard for metal tank parks, and the underground connections needed to supply lubricants, supplies, and general provisioning for ships via a barge and lighters. However, the project remains stuck in the processing of paperwork, decarbonisation permits, demands for municipal acoustic impact studies, and repeated requests for extensions that neutralize its market entry.
The regulator’s dilemma and conflicts of interest on the board
The backdrop to this operational paralysis goes beyond mere slowness by public administrations. At the table where the future extension for MH Bland is decided sits, in his capacity as a director of Fedeport, Javier Climent, a representative of the Boluda Group (owner of terminals in Canary Islands together with the Kingdom of Morocco). The regulatory irony is clear: Boluda is the dominant operator in the facility and the main competitor that would be harmed by the entry into service of the Gibraltar group’s barge and logistics infrastructure. MH Bland’s new facilities are located precisely in the same strip of the Cambulloneros quay where the Valencian shipping company inaugurated its tug base, creating a physical proximity that heightens commercial tension.
This overlap of roles between the employers’ association regulators and the direct competitors creates an asymmetry that erodes foreign investors’ legal certainty. While the public body, for show, argues that MH Bland’s arrival strengthens the catalogue of services, increases competition, and helps align bunkering prices against competing hubs such as Algeciras, the reality inside the concession shows that established operators have institutional levers to slow down any initiative that threatens their market share.
A competitive gap in a strategic setting
MH Bland’s project is not limited to storing lubricants. The concession enables the company to operate as a general provisioner, manage supplies, provide spare parts for naval maintenance, and develop maritime transport services, except towing and indirect services. The arrival of a firm with roots in Gibraltar, Morocco, and Malta introduced a factor of direct competition at a geopolitical moment when traffic diversions stemming from the conflict in the Red Sea have returned Canary Islands to a key role in navigation routes between East and West.
Despite having passed the filters of regional environmental assessment and obtaining the work license from the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in late November, MH Bland remains trapped in the phase of verifications and technical assignments. The requirement to meet investment timelines for a barge to supply packaged products becomes a perfect trap when the accumulated delays in urbanizing the plot, laying out underground pipelines, and setting grades depend on the Port Authority itself.
The outcome of the vote on July 23 will reveal whether Las Palmas Port is willing to guarantee free competition or whether, on the contrary, the local employers’ association’s levers will keep the Gibraltar group’s investment frozen. While the extension is debated, the multinational continues paying the financial costs of a project stalled in offices, confirming that in the major dockyard of the Middle Atlantic, bureaucracy has become the most effective defensive weapon of established operators.
The post MH Bland’s ordeal at Las Palmas port and the Boluda status quo was first published on canarymaritime.com.
