“We will try to apply the hydrogen knowledge we are acquiring in the Port of València to our ports”. This was stated by William Camargo, Minister of Transport of Colombia, during his visit to the docks of Valenciaport. The high-ranking official – who was accompanied by a large delegation from the South American country – crossed the pond to see first-hand the Port of Valencia and the hydrogen technologies used in its operations.

The Colombian Government has sent a large delegation to the Valencian docks formed by Camargo; Irene Vélez, Minister of Mines and Energy; the Vice-Minister of Mines and Energy, Cristian Diaz; and the Colombian Consul in Valencia, Gillian Maghmud. Together with them and on behalf of the PAV, the president of Valenciaport, Joan Calabuig; the director of Ecological Transition of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Federico Torres; the manager of the Valenciaport Foundation (FVP), Antonio Torregrosa; and the director of Energy Transition and Sustainability of FVP, Josep Sanz, were present.

Valenciaport’s decarbonisation plans and its environmental strategy completed the agenda of this meeting. Both the Minister of Transport and the Colombian Minister of Energy showed special interest in the H2PORTS project and its ongoing pilots with various applications for the use of hydrogen: the 4×4 truck tractor unit powered by this green energy to move containers within its terminals; the hydrogen plant (supply station) – which they subsequently visited – that was installed in January on the Xità quay. And also, the hydrogen ReachStacker (container stacker) that Hyster is developing, and which will start testing in a few days at the MSC terminal.

“The green hydrogen projects of the Port of Valencia show that the ports can be at the forefront in ecological transition”, assured Camargo after his visit to the Valencian site.

Excellent commercial relations

The Valencian precincts maintain commercial relations with various Colombian ports, a sign of the high connectivity of their docks, which is a competitive advantage for the export/import companies in their area of influence. Specifically in 2022, the main ports in this country with which Valenciaport operated were: Cartagena, Buenaventura, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Barrancabermeja and Turbo.

Last year, the annual cargo and unloading traffic between Valenciaport and the Peruvian ports totalled 239,557 tonnes of goods, almost 88% of which were containerised. 85% of the operations carried out were exports, the main goods leaving the Valencian ports for Colombia being: construction materials, agri-foodstuffs followed by chemical products. On the other hand, import traffic focused mainly on agri-foodstuffs.
Source: Valenciaport