July 11, 2023
Today we started the morning super early and traveled to the port of Barcelona to receive a tour and a presentation. The presenter began by emphasizing that Barcelona is the logistics hub for Europe and the Mediterranean Strategic Vision. There are different port categories, including old port authority providing services directly, your port, where the port is the owner of the land and the private companies have contracts with port authorities; and a landlord port where the state gives land/some control to companies investing in the space. We learned that Barcelona’s port mission included goals such as creating added value to the surrounding economy, providing better logistics solutions end to end from the existing ones by sustainable growth (economic, social, environmental), digitalization, and improvement in reducing carbon emissions. Barcelona Port has also introduced the IV Strategic Plan 2021-2025. The port’s mission is to promote prosperity in the community by increasing its clients’ competitiveness through the provision of efficient and sustainable logistics and transport services. The presenter also explained the objectives for sustainability environmentally, economically, and socially. The environmental goals included hopes of energy transitions by means of developing new energy models, decarbonization, reducing pollution, and increasing intermodality. Economic sustainability goals aim to increase the port’s competitive advantage by diversifying port business, differentiating the offer of services, attracting new logistics activity, and developing the required infrastructure. Socially their goal is to focus on human capital by promoting training, employment, entrepreneurship and attracting talent, promoting equal opportunity, integration of the port in its urban sectors, and ensuring people and facilities’ health and security. The main focus of the presentation, though was the emphasis on the port’s goals of environmental sustainability. The promotion of rebates for green vessels using renewable energy and rechargeable batteries and a waterfront electrification program, among many other efforts, will contribute to the Port of Barcelona’s environmental sustainability project. One fact that particularly stood out to me was the ranking of the Barcelona Port, which is 1st in the Mediterranean and 4th in Europe when it comes to vessel traffic.
After the presentation, we learned and discussed the different aspects of the port and traveled around the port on a really beautiful boat with a guide. She discussed the importance of the differing cranes and who owned and operated each terminal, as well as the water depth and the size of the boats it allowed to let in.
We saw all of the terminals, several huge cruise ships, and the cranes that loaded and unload the containers from the vessels and onto trucks or to sit at the port until being transported elsewhere. It was a very cool experience and really amazing to see the comparison between the operations of the Charleston Port and then Barcelona Port.
After our time at the Port of Barcelona, we took the metro to go have lunch at el Raco del Cargol, where we had traditional Catalan food.
In the afternoon, we met with the operating manager of Operinter and the Alonso Group in the afternoon. Operinter is a global logistics company that handles air, sea, rail, and road transport, warehousing, and distribution and benefits by having offices domestically in Spain and internationally. He emphasized that the company’s biggest goals are growth and speed in every step of its journey. He also showed some pretty cool and well-put-together promotion videos for his company. Oddly enough, this is something I acknowledged at many of the companies and ports we visited. Many had promotion videos that were really well put together and oddly high quality for the industry, something that I have not experienced or seen at any other visits or meetings with logistics companies in the US from my personal experience. I thought it was kind of bizarre because I was not used to cinematic art for a logistics company. Like every other company and port we visited, the operating manager at Operinter emphasized their goals of environmental sustainability. Their focuses revolved around decarbonization, renewable energies (solar/air), decrease in waste, intermodality, promoting green hydrogen as a source of energy, and innovation and connecting data for more connected interactions. He also informed us of the company’s efforts in teaching customers to package properly to reduce waste, emissions, optimize space, decrease costs, etc. The company is a freight forwarder, so its job is to organize the transport of freight from point A to point B. They don’t, however, own any means of transportation except a few trucks. He finished the presentation by discussing the digital age of logistics with us and the way the company involves new technology in its operations, such as high-quality tracking and advanced software, to optimize efficiency and transparency throughout the supply chain.
Questions I asked:
- How big are the warehouses?
- 1 mil sqm of their own warehouses
- What database do you use mainly? (I am familiar with TOM, Cargowise, Moira, as well as Exworks at my own job)
- They use their own developed database/software that is only used by Operinter. However, he did acknowledge a disconnect when using another company as the import or export agent for a shipment. For example, if I were to be using Cargowise and they were using their own database to share information, the information would come back a little distorted on both sides.
I particularly enjoyed this presentation because I am so familiar with the procedures and processes of the positions and jobs included in a Freight Forwarding/Logistics company so it was much easier for me to relate, connect and understand the Operinter and their goals and services. Simultaneously, the presenter, the managing director named Carlos, was probably one of the nicest presenters we’ve had so far.
We finished the day with packing, homework, dinner, and celebrating our last night in Barcelona before our train ride tomorrow morning to Valencia.
