July 18, 2023

Today was another travel day. We woke up at 7 am to take a train from Valencia to Madrid, which took 2 1/2 hours and was delayed. This meant we had to sprint through the train station from one terminal to the next, which took us 45 mins with approximately 20 seconds to spare to board our other train to go to Barcelona. The train to Barcelona took another 2 1/2 hours. The whole time I caught up on homework for both of the classes, so at least it was a productive travel day. We had the last class in the afternoon and then went to dinner at Centonze. It was probably the best dinner we have had since arriving. Afterward, the student hung out for the last hours of our last day. Overall it was a fantastic trip, and I am so happy to have met everyone. Going home is a bittersweet feeling, but we all already have plans to hang out together a few says after we returned back to the US, so I am so excited.

July 17, 2023 – Day 12

Today we visited Raminatrans, a prominent logistics company know for its exceptional transportation and freight services. The following are notes and what we leaned there. Please note the guides English wasn’t that great so it was difficult to understand him.

First warehouse in logistic chain

• Warehouse main function is to receive containers from Valencia port and unload here
• Buffer warehouse

Warehouse Contents

• paper (24 roles will fit in a container due to weight)
• TVs
• Water heater
• Dishwasher
• Washing machine
• Food products
• Motor bikes
• Water

Company is one of the biggest importers from china in Spain

Warehouse size: 17,000 square meters

For the most part Goods are not custom checked yet when they arrive

Have to Mount motor bikes at warehouse

July 17, 2023

We started the morning with a tour of Raminatrans, a logistics company that handles transportation and freight based in Ribarroja. We had the opportunity to take a tour of their warehouse and a presentation while we explored the warehouse. The warehouse operations typically hold the stock for a medium to a long amount of time for customers. They considered themselves a buffer warehouse with connections to the Port of Valencia. They receive the containers, deconsolidate, and stock the goods, or sometimes they send them to another warehouse or to the final customer. They are the biggest logistics company in Spain, according to the presenter. I liked the fun fact he added, saying the warehouse itself used to be a manufacturing location for Hasbro. We learned about the two different departments within the building, the operations/management department and the warehouse department, which handles more of the manual labor side of the warehouse, whereas the operations department handles more of the logistics coordination of the freight. He also discussed concepts I was very familiar with, such as Last free days, demurrage, deconsolidation and detention, and activities that I have to deal with and coordinate on a day-to-day basis at my job. The sheer size of the warehouse itself was astonishing, with a wide variety of products varying from Kymco, their biggest customer who manufactures motorbikes, to honey, cacao, rice paper for newspapers, and dishwashers, among many other goods.  We were also shown the refrigerated part of the warehouse that, honestly, the cold was a shock to the system after being out in the Spanish heat for so long. He explained that they had to put in a cooling floor before building the warehouse itself, which seems like a ton of work, and then explained that they plan on adding a frozen section as well to the warehouse.

Questions:

• What paperwork is needed other than a Bill of lading, AN, and packing list?
  • He explained that they also require paperwork that may be specific to that was specific to the warehouse and Raminatran’s own operations, such as a CMR (similar to a bill of lading for road transport, which I had never heard of before), paperwork for bonded cargo, customs clearance or decline, and paperwork do the treatment and handling of the products.

After, we went to lunch at Pata Negra and had a variety of foods, including pea soup, a blended gazpacho type thing, codfish, chips, and guacamole, a type of thinly sliced bacon in oil and peppers? There were a ton of different foods. It was really cool to have a lot of items that many of us had never had before.

I went to visit the beach after lunch and try and relax on my last day in Valencia. It was very nice. However, I realized after watching kids on the beach playing soccer that I really missed playing and made it my mission for the day to find somewhere to play. I walked a round trip 6 miles to the beach and then an additional 3 around the city to try and find ANYWHERE that I could play a pickup soccer game. I asked almost every person wearing a jersey or indoor soccer shoes on the street where I could play, and everyone pointed me in different directions. Finally, I ran into these two boys who were wearing cleats and had a soccer ball. They invited me to come to play a pickup game with them, and I was beyond excited.

Today was easily the best day in Valencia because I had the opportunity to play the sport I love in a country that is extremely passionate about it. Being able to meet and play with the boys who grew up in Valencia, who immediately welcomed me and asked which team I support between Barcelona and Madrid. The correct answer is Madrid, by the way. It was a great ending to the trip and quite possibly my favorite part.

7/17/2023

Day 12

We got to sleep in this morning which was so nice, and a very good start to the day because I felt very rested. We headed to Raminatrans, a logistics company right outside Valencia in Ribarroja. In my opinion, it was one of the best tours we’ve had. Our guide walked us through the whole warehouse, and we got to learn so much about the company. I have attached notes that I took throughout the tour and a picture of the motorbikes that we discussed. At the end of the tour, they gave us a backpack, and they let us keep the visitor vests that we wore. After the tour, we went to lunch at Pata Negra. Professor Jose from the College of Charleston came and met us. It was a good lunch! After lunch, Summer, Liz, and I went to the aquarium. It was so much fun!!! We got to see flamingos, fish, penguins, and much more! After that, we went shopping at Mango, Bershka, and Brandy Melville. We ate sushi for dinner at Nacionsushi. We went home and packed to go back to Barcelona!

Raminatrans Visit

• Logistic operator that connects with Port of Valencia (one of the biggest companies in Spain, started 30 years ago)
• Main function: receive containers from Valencia Port; stock for long periods of time (like a buffer warehouse)
• Got to see containers that store newspapers, televisions, washing machines, dishwasher, etc
• Truck + goods = cannot exceed 42 tons
• Different types of loading machines
• KYMCO
• -Motorbikes from Taiwan and send to seller in box; they have to fix front wheel and other small parts of bike beforehand; they pull out the carton and mount motorbike in this warehouse, so it is finished for sellers *attached picture of the mounted motorbikes
• Has warehouse in Madrid as well as Valencia
• Warehouse has about 89% in capacity
• Zaragoza: special point in Spain; not big population
• -In terms of logistics, Zaragoza is equal in distance between Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Badal; a lot of trade in Zaragoza
• Switched from consuming pam oil to alternate oil, type of sunflower oil
• One building was cold for containers of foods like almonds; 4 times more expensive than the warmer building.
• 70 people work in this warehouse.
• 350 people in the whole company.
• Offices in every main port in Spain.
• Valencia is their largest location.
• Most important problem/waste of the company right now: import of containers; lose competitiveness
• ERP: managing system of warehouse; Microsoft basis, develop special criteria
• What was it like during the pandemic, did the pandemic have an effect/impact on your operations
• Impact on company and operations during COVID

-Office work: can work from home, some people stayed in office with masks and windows open

-The companies had a lot of damage in terms of people contracting covid

-Storage was very full; wanted to deliver but could not

-When everything started opening again, the opposite happened

-In terms of economics: did not invoice anything

-In terms of storage: very full

After a fun and relaxing weekend in Ibiza, we wake up from our hotel and hop into taxis to visit Raminatrans, a logistics company known for their freight and transportation services. We visited their office and was given a tour by a man named Luis. We were then given a tour of the warehouse where they have a vast variety of products stored inside. It was organized and structured well, being able to find whatever item you were looking for in seconds. They even have a refrigerated warehouse with plans to create a freezer warehouse in the surrounding area. It was interesting to see how much inventory that was in the warehouse. After our visit we went to lunch as a group to Pata Negra. It was ok, nothing I’d go back for but was a nice rest during the day. We returned to the hotel and I began catching up on some assignments and getting ready for our train ride back to Barcelona and our farewell dinner tomorrow.

Notes from today:

Day 12 –

Luis

Logistics operator that works with port of Valencia

Receiving containers and unload and stock for mid-long period of time

First warehouse in logistic chain

• sent from here to another warehouse where that goes to final customer
• Buffer warehouse

Paper stored, used for newspaper of Valencia

Appliances stored here as well

One of the biggest companies in Spain that import from china

Opened a local office in China

Manages 5 million containers from port of Valencia

24 tons max per load net

42 tons with truck

30 coil rolls per TEU

70,000 square meters warehouse

40,000 covered

OAEA – authorized economic operator

Quality level that customs determines companies can show trustibility

When you bring a container

• customs will release your goods
• Customs will require confirmation of documents before release
• Customs will search the container to see if contents match description

Yadea 18,000 motorbikes per year

Holds motorbikes for retailers

• fit bikes and mount them to add parts needed for sale
• Loaded onto a special truck and sent to retailer

Logistics is to adapt to what the customer asks for

Retailer paying for the one with their stuff in warehouse

80-90% capacity

Store outside and calculate capacity for 200 containers

At limit during pandemic

Samsung TVs

• produced in Slovakia
• Shipped to Morocco

Bilbao

Train transportation more sustainable

Rail is not as fast as truck

They break down big pallets into smaller batches to comply with regulations

There is a limit that automation cannot cover.

70 person staff

30 trucks, 30 drivers

20 office

20 forklift

To import containers originally

Start making warehouses

Main problem

• Having a lot of products means having to use spaces differently
• Having to deal with customs
• Process in this warehouse hard to improve based on space

28 special containers

250 transports everything is good

Contract when lower on orders

We woke up and got ready for our tour of the Port of Valencia. We were given a private bus today instead of the metro which was a nice change of pace. The Port of Valencia is a compact port with over 30 quay cranes that makes it the biggest container terminal in Spain. It is the 4th in the EU and handles about 12-14 ships per day. After our visit we got our bags and headed to the airport for our weekend trip to Ibiza. Looking forward to this weekend and our visit on Monday!

Notes for today:

Day9

Ports of València are Public

New terminal expansion for MSC

• MSC MAERSK split will affect MAERSK as they don’t have any room to expand at the port of València and MSC is creating an additional terminal for themselves

30 to 60 quay cranes

Upgrading 2 rails to 4 rails

Originated in 1563

Spanish Port System

• 28 Port authorities

Subsidiaries

• Gandia
• Sagunto

8 plants

14000 capacity of cars

Valencia is only 7h away

Tanger(Africa) new growing port

12-14 ships per day, 24-48h turnaround time

EU depends on Asia, 45%

24,000 TEU vessel can be docked in Valencia port

Piraeus is in Chinese hands and has passed València

Dry Ports

• Madrid
• Zaragozà

60% of containers in Madrid coke through València

Automobile trains

• reducing logistics cost

Sustainability

• Electrified power station
• Power plant expansion

Tourists can’t access city center from the current terminal

Capacity will be almost doubled when new terminal is added

Control Charts for Valencia port as lean tool

• organized, needs flow of containers measured

1. Day 9: 7/14/23

We all packed up this morning for our flight to Ibiza today and left the hotel around 9:15 for our meeting/ tour at Valenciaport this morning. We took a private bus to our visit and began our tour.

Notes from the tour:

History:

• The port is far from the city center to avoid the attack of pirates long ago
• The name of the village at the time was Grau
• The port in 1835 only contained one arm and was not as accessible as the Barcelona port
• In the 80s the port expanded
• In 2019 the most recent terminal was added
• Valenciaport has 28 port authorities

Three subsidiaries

• Valencia
• Sagunto: an important city in the 80s because of coal, but 20,000 jobs were lost what’s the Spanish coal industry collapsed. They now produce electric batteries as a factory.
• Gandia: only fishing industry
• The port of València is much larger than its subsidiaries

Facts

• About 12 to 15 container ships come to the port each day
• Right now, Spain is importing gas from the US
• Their most important port allies are Italy and France
• Valencia only has to dredge about two times a year because ships don’t access their ports via river
• 38.16% of the containers designed for Spanish foreign trade are operated at the port of València

After our presentation we took a guided bus tour of Valènciaport and looked over the area from lookout points throughout the port. It was a really cool experience to see all of the port operating from up close! After the tour we headed off to the airport for our flight.

*Today we took a chartered bus to go tour the port of  Valencia. The port was huge and I’m walkable so we rode the bus all around. Our guide did a short presentation before our tour and these are the notes I collected:

-28 Port Authorities

• Their subsidiaries

1. Sagunto
2. Gandia
3. Valencia

-Capacity of 4,000 cars

• Has about 30-60 quay cranes right now
• 1563: El Grau
• The Spanish Port System

-About 12-14 container comes in per day

-Turn around time: 24-48 hours

-Each port has its own program

• The Vessel Evolution

-Moving about 24,000 containers now, in 1950s it was only about 500-800

-Top 10 ports are located in China

-Top port in EU: Rotterdam (NL) in 2007, 2021, and 2022

-Top Spanish container port in 2021 was Valencia

• Intermodality

-Valencia is a shareholder of the dry ports

-60% of the containers in the Madrid area are operated through the Port of Valencia

————-

*after the visit we headed to lunch than the 7 of us headed to the airport for our weekend trip to I Ibiza.

We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel.

*After breakfast, we took public transportation to get to the

Port of València (valenciaport)

Here are a few notes I took during the lecture:

*46 spanish ports

*28 port authorities

*Some port authorities manage multiple ports

*98% of machinery is electric, 2% hydrogen

*75% of port traffic is container

*Valencia port is #27 in top world container port chart

*#1 Spanish container port

*Madrid is the dry port of Valencia

*More than 500 partners and 309+ projects completed

*Opentop is Valènciaport’s official innovation hub

———————-

*After the lecture we went to lunch in the city. It was wonderful eating paella in the place it originated. It was served in a huge pan for us to all share and was so fulfilling.

*After lunch we had free time so I wondered around, got coffee, then headed back to the hotel to get some rest

07/14/2023

Day 9

This morning, we made our way to the Port of València. We had a nice lecture and then got to go around and do a tour. After that, we made our way to the Ibiza airport! Here are notes from the Port of València:

• #1 container port
• Has about 30-60 quay cranes right now
• 1563: El Grau
• The Spanish Port System

-28 Port Authorities

• Their subsidiaries

1. Sagunto
2. Gandia
3. Valencia

-Capacity of 4,000 cars

-About 12-14 container comes in per day

-Turn around time: 24-48 hours

-Each port has its own program

• The Vessel Evolution

-Moving about 24,000 containers now, in 1950s it was only about 500-800

-Top 10 ports are located in China

-Top port in EU: Rotterdam (NL) in 2007, 2021, and 2022

-Top Spanish container port in 2021 was Valencia

• Intermodality

-Valencia is a shareholder of the dry ports

-60% of the containers in the Madrid area are operated through the Port of Valencia