Effi­ci­en­cy, sus­taina­bi­li­ty, and con­nec­ti­vi­ty at the ser­vice of maritime-land logi­stics chains

The Short­sea Pro­mo­ti­on Cen­ter – Spain (SPC-Spain) and the Euro­pean Short­sea Net­work (ESN) held their annu­al con­fe­rence today at the Port of Huel­va under the slo­gan ‘Short­sea Ship­ping: effi­ci­en­cy, sus­taina­bi­li­ty and con­nec­ti­vi­ty at the ser­vice of maritime-land logi­stics chains’, whe­re inter­na­tio­nal experts addres­sed the trends and chal­lenges of logi­stics chains in the face of new trade flows, the digi­ta­liza­ti­on and the decar­bo­niza­ti­on goals of the Inter­na­tio­nal Mari­ti­me Orga­niza­ti­on and the Euro­pean Uni­on, among other topics.

This con­fe­rence takes on an inter­na­tio­nal cha­rac­ter as SPC Spain holds the pre­si­den­cy of the Euro­pean orga­niza­ti­on, ESN.

The insti­tu­tio­nal ope­ning of the event was atten­ded by the pre­si­dent of Puer­tos del Estado, Álva­ro Rodrí­guez Dape­na, the pre­si­dent of the Port of Huel­va, Alber­to San­ta­na, the pre­si­dent of SPC Spain-ESN, Ele­na Seco, and the mayor of Huel­va, Pilar Miranda.

The pre­si­dent of the Public Body of Sta­te Ports has high­ligh­ted “the importance of short­sea ship­ping within the frame­work of the firm com­mit­ment to the sus­taina­bi­li­ty of the port system.”

The pre­si­dent of SPC Spain-ESN stres­sed that the­se annu­al con­fe­ren­ces aim to “bring short sea ship­ping clo­ser and rai­se awa­re­ness to high­light the role it plays in trans­port and mobi­li­ty in Euro­pe, espe­ci­al­ly decar­bo­niza­ti­on. The Euro­pean Uni­on pro­mo­tes the trans­fer of goods from the road to the sea, as a mat­ter of con­ve­ni­ence, to coope­ra­te with each other so that the truck gets on the ves­sel and redu­ces the hours of road tra­vel for more sus­tainable mobi­li­ty, among other advantages”.

Three round tables were held, and a posi­ti­on state­ment of the ESN as a Euro­pean instru­ment to pro­mo­te the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of Short Sea Ship­ping by Rober­to Men­car­rel­li from SPC Ita­ly. Rele­vant Euro­pean enti­ties and insti­tu­ti­ons (DG MOVE, DG CLI­MA, ECSA, ESPO, ECAS­BA) par­ti­ci­pa­ted in each panel, as well as dif­fe­rent sec­to­ri­al agents and repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of ship­ping com­pa­nies, road trans­port, ener­gy com­pa­nies, Port Aut­ho­ri­ties and the Spa­nish Fede­ra­ti­on of Freight Forwarders.

The first panel addres­sed the importance of the SSS in the recon­fi­gu­ra­ti­on of trade rou­tes and rela­ti­ons with third count­ries and the con­ve­ni­ence of a Euro­pean eco-incentive with the refe­rence of the one laun­ched in Spain, con­side­ring the oppor­tu­ni­ty for finan­cing through the Con­nec­ting Euro­pe Faci­li­ty, as well as the inte­gra­ti­on of the SSS into the Trans-European Trans­port Network.

The second panel focu­sed on effi­ci­en­cy, digi­ta­liza­ti­on, and stan­dar­diza­ti­on to boost com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness. This round table dis­cus­sed the aspects of bor­der con­trol and digi­ta­liza­ti­on and their poten­ti­al to con­tri­bu­te to grea­ter com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of Short­sea Ship­ping, the Euro­pean Sin­gle Win­dow, and the amend­ment of the UCC (Uni­on Cus­toms Code).

The third and final panel focu­sed on sus­taina­bi­li­ty and the Ener­gy Tran­si­ti­on in Short­sea Ship­ping. This round table ana­ly­zed the regu­la­ti­ons aimed at decar­bo­niza­ti­on, the pos­si­ble solu­ti­ons, and their requi­re­ments for pro­du­cers, ship­ping com­pa­nies, and ports to decar­bo­ni­ze mari­ti­me transport.

The con­fe­rence, which was atten­ded by more than 200 atten­de­es, in per­son and online, cul­mi­na­ted with sha­ring the con­clu­si­ons of the topics addres­sed, with the inter­ven­ti­on of the Gene­ral Direc­to­ra­te of the Mer­chant Navy and the Port of Huelva.

This con­fe­rence col­la­bo­ra­tes with com­pa­nies from the port com­mu­ni­ty of Huel­va, such as Cep­sa, Ena­gás, Baleària & Fred. Olsen Express, Navie­ra Armas Tras­me­di­ter­rá­nea and Yil­port Huelva.