Matosinhos, Portugal, April 24, 2025 (Lusa) - The volume of cargo handled by the port of Leixões, in Matosinhos, in Portugal's Porto district, last year fell 2%, from 14.7 million tonnes to 14.4 million, losing the leadership of the Northwest Peninsula to the port of A Coruña, in Galicia.
According to the data available on the website of the Administração dos Portos do Douro, Leixões e Viana do Castelo (APDL), the company that manages the facility, in 2024 Leixões handled 14,381,791 tonnes of goods, 2% less than the 14,673,070 handled in 2023.
The 2024 figures represent a loss of leadership for the port in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula: for the first time since there have been publicly available records that allow comparison (that is, since 2015), the port of A Coruña, in Galicia, has overtaken it.
In 2024, according to data from Puertos del Estado, Spain's state-owned ports management company, A Coruña handled 14,605,648 tonnes, 5.2% more than the 13,879,975 it handled in 2023.
Over the last few years, Leixões has seen a steady decrease in cargo handled, with factors including the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of the Petrogal refinery in Leça da Palmeira, also in Matosinhos.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the port of Leixões handled as much as 19.5 million tonnes, but this figure fell to 17.0 million in 2020, 15.1 million in 2021 (the year the Petrogal refinery closed), 14.9 million in 2022, 14.7 million in 2023 and 14.4 in 2024.
The port of A Coruña, on the other hand, has been growing in recent years, with 10.5 million tonnes handled in 2020, 11.8 million in 2021, 14.8 million in 2022, 13.9 million in 2023 (the only year after the pandemic that saw a decline) and 14.6 million in 2024.
In 2019, the port of A Coruña had handled 13.5 million tonnes of goods, and it surpassed that pre-pandemic figure in 2022 - a recovery that the port of Leixões has not managed to achieve so far.
In both cases, the figures do not include fresh fish or fuel, but only containerised cargo, break-bulk, ro-ro (the loading and unloading of wheeled vehicles), and dry and liquid bulk goods.
Despite the overall decrease, in 2024 the port of Leixões saw a 4% increase in break-bulk cargo (from 1.39 million tonnes to 1.44 million) and a 2% increase in containerised cargo (from 6.9 million tonnes to 7.2 million).
When questioned by Lusa, APDL confirmed in a written response that "the main justification for the lower level of activity at the Port of Leixões in recent years has to do with the closure of the Leça da Palmeira Refinery, which led to a reduction in the movement of liquid bulk from around 8 million tonnes in 2019 to around 2.5 million tonnes in 2024.
"There are other factors that have been influencing this type of traffic, such as international geopolitical crises and the greater electrification of road transport," it added.
However, APDL points out that there are "other types of cargo that have seen a positive evolution" such as "fractional cargo, mainly associated with the export of iron and steel, and containerised cargo, which reflects the good dynamics of industry in the north and centre of Portugal."
Asked if the figures show the need to expand the port, an APDL official said that Leixões "has limitations, both in terms of the terminal bottoms, since the depth doesn't exceed -12 metres (ZHL [Zero Hydrographic of Leixões]), and in relation to the port embankments, whose area is clearly insufficient, given the current port traffic, particularly at the container terminals.
"For this reason, APDL has drawn up the Strategic Plan for the Port of Leixões 2024-2035, which aims to define the development strategy for the Port of Leixões for 2035," it went on, adding that this "will soon be presented to the public, where the respective investments and associated actions will be publicised."
JE/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
