The Board of Directors of the Port of Barcelona approved in May granting MSC Cruises Barcelona Terminal a concession to build and operate a cruise terminal at the Adossado Wharf. The project involves the construction of a maritime station with a total area of 11,670 m2, distributed across three levels, and will represent an investment of 33 million euros by the company. The concession is granted for a period of 31 years, and the maritime station is expected to be operational by 2024.
With this project, MSC Cruises will consolidate its presence in the Port of Barcelona, boosting homeport traffic—those cruise passengers who begin and end their journey in the Catalan capital and therefore make a greater economic contribution to the city—and the arrival of the newest and most sustainable ships in its fleet, powered by LNG. The terminal construction project also includes connecting the ships to the electrical grid, eliminating emissions while they are in port, once the Adossat dock is equipped to provide this service, an action planned within the Port of Barcelona's Dock Electrification Plan.
The construction of this cruise terminal is included in the agreement signed by the Port of Barcelona and the Barcelona City Council in January 2018, which reduced the total number of cruise terminals and concentrated them all at the Adossat Wharf, following a phased plan. This plan involves the removal of all cruise terminals from the city's port area – the North and South terminals of the Barcelona Wharf – to open these areas for public use.
“MSC is making a strong commitment to the Port of Barcelona. This company has demonstrated its interest in supporting our strategy to make the port increasingly sustainable (both environmentally, by designing the new terminal with the latest advancements to minimize emissions from both the terminal itself and the ships that will call there) and economically and socially, by making a significant investment that will create a considerable number of jobs,” explains Mercè Conesa, President of the Port of Barcelona. She adds that “the awarding of this concession is another step closer to our goal, agreed upon with the City Council in 2018, of relocating all cruise terminals to the Adossat Wharf, moving them away from urban areas, optimizing passenger and vehicle traffic, and opening up new spaces for public enjoyment.”.
Pierfrancesco Vago, CEO of MSC Cruises, stated, “We are extremely pleased with the awarding of this concession. Barcelona is not only an important port for our cruise operations, but also for all of the MSC Group’s maritime activities. This new terminal reaffirms our commitment to Barcelona, Catalonia, and all of Spain.”.
“I am also honored to have the collaboration of Ricardo Bofill and his team for this project. Together we will build a new state-of-the-art terminal that will become another landmark for the beautiful city of Barcelona,” Vago adds.
According to the CEO of MSC Cruises, “this new terminal will allow us to expand our embarkation operations to Barcelona, which will increase our economic impact on the region. This will lead to greater spending by our international guests, many of whom will stay for several days in the city and its hotels before or after their cruise. Likewise, strengthening our homeport operations will allow us to bring more state-of-the-art ships to Barcelona, such as the MSC World Europa, an LNG-powered ship currently under construction that will become one of the most environmentally friendly ships when it enters service.”.
“Finally, this new terminal will allow us to further demonstrate our commitment to environmental sustainability, as it will have port infrastructure that will allow cruise ships to connect to the local electricity grid and also LNG bunkering facilities,” concludes Pierfrancesco Vago.
