Spanish ports are closely monitoring the potential impact of tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump this month on international trade.
The country’s three largest ports — Valencia, Algeciras, and Barcelona — represent a significant portion of Spain’s international shipping. Algeciras, which manages the highest volume of US-bound cargo, exported around 40,000 full containers to the US East Coast in 2024, accounting for 20 per cent of its total overseas shipments, according to port officials.
“At this early stage, we need to adopt a position of prudence regarding these announcements that the Trump administration has been making about tariffs,” said Nicolas A. Martinez, head of business development and marketing of the Port of Algeciras Bay Authority. “We will have to see which ones are imposed and in what way they are carried out.”
Spain’s ports say they are better prepared for trade volatility after years of logistical challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and shipping delays caused by conflict in the Red Sea.
“The logistics chain has recently experienced many disruptions, which has made it a lot more resilient, not only for logistics operators but also the freight handlers,” Martinez said. “That makes me believe we will be more prepared to react to whatever might arise.”
Despite Trump’s tariff threats, Spanish ports remain strong. The Port of Barcelona announced last week that exports surged 30 per cent in the opening weeks of 2025. “We’ll have to see what effects this could have and how freight carriers respond, whether they look for alternatives and how this might shift global trade flows,” Martinez said.
Spain’s trade with China has also shown growth this year, as seen in Valencia, where January cargo exchanges rose 43.4 per cent year-on-year to 736,692 tonnes, while trade with the United States fell 1 per cent to 439,165 tonnes. Container traffic showed a similar trend: Valencia’s China trade jumped 53.1 per cent to 67,475 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), while shipments to the US dropped 1.8 per cent to 27,763 TEUs.
According to the European Commission’s latest data, Spanish ports accounted for 14 per cent of all European Union (EU) shipping traffic in 2023, trailing only the Netherlands (16.1 per cent) and Italy (14.8 per cent).
