The shipping platform

Location: Bilbao is situated on the N Spanish coast with the port extending 10.7nm up the River Nervion. General overview: Covering 350 hectares of land and almost 2 hectares of water surface, the port contains 17 kilometers of docks, 252 hectares of open storage, 30 thousand square meters of covered storage, and 25.3 thousand square meters of cold storage. It also has five roll-on/roll-off ramps and terminals for containers, solid and liquid bulks, forest products, vehicles, general cargoes, and passengers. There are six clearly defined dock areas: ● Zorroza Wharves: The bottom at Zorroza is soft mud and vessels can lie safely aground, bottom at Canal de Deusto is rocky. Restriction: LOA 135m, draught approx 5.5m. ● Nervion Riverside wharves: On both banks of the river, they are mostly private berths, the bottom is soft mud. Restrictions: LOA 150m, draught varies according to berth. ● Santurtzi-Zierbena area wharves: Located in the outer harbour adjacent to the new breakwater of 3,100m, and the Santurtzi Secondary breakwater of 1,200m. Draught varies from 7.0m, 12.0m, 14.0m in the old area, and 21.0m in the new one for bulk carriers, container ships, general cargo etc. Vessels of LOA 300m, draught of 20.0-21.0m can be accommodated at four berths. Just in front of this area a new cruise ship berth is built with a draught of 11.0m. ● Punta Sollana Wharf: Length 390m, draught 20.0m, is destined to bulk carriers with seeds of grain unloading installations, and to vegetable oil tankers. ● Punta Ceballos area: Draught 18.0m; has bulk liquid loading and unloading installations for gas-oil, petrol and chemical products. ● Punta Lucero area: Has crude oil, petroleum distillates, bulk liquid, loading and discharging and LNG installations. There is also a new wharf for LNG ships up to LOA 290m, draught 21.0m, 145,000m³. Principle imports are crude oil, LNG, iron ore, pyrites, scrap iron, pig-iron, coal, grain and soya beans; principal exports petroleum, iron and steel products. Dock A1 occupies a sheltered harbor of over five square kilometers. It contains an 850-meter long dock with alongside depth of 21 meters and surface area of 425 thousand square meters. Abra Terminales Maritimas operates a container terminal at Dock A1. Dock A2 covers 267.5 thousand square meters and contains 750-meters of berthing space with alongside depth of 20 meters. It includes a container terminal managed by Terminales Maritimas de Bilbao. Dock A3 accommodates roll-on/roll-off traffic. Covering 270 thousand square meters, it contains 910 meters of berthing space with alongside depth of 20 meters. Dock AZ1 is home to a sodium sulphate plant. Covering 200 thousand square meters, the dock is 800 meters long with alongside depth of 21 meters. The Port of Bilbao’s Punta Sollana Dock is the industrial port. Covering 250 thousand square meters, it contains berthing space of 387 meters. The dock area includes many industrial facilities including a granulated slag mill, a blast furnace, and plants for refining oil, grinding seeds, and processing coke. Plants for manufacturing bio-diesel and bio-ethanol are being constructed at this dock. Traffic figures: Approx 3,585 vessels, 39,000,000t of cargo, 550,000TEU and 179,000 passengers handled annually. Load line zone: North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II, Winter Nov 1 to Mar 31, Summer Apr 1 to Oct 31. Max size: Petronor Oil Berth No 1: LOA 400m, draught 30.0m, 500,000DWT. Largest vessels handled: "MSC Candice", container vessel, 337m, 9,200TEU. "Heliespont Grand", tanker, LOA 378m, draught 21.3m. "Mozah", LNG carrier, LOA 345m, 267,000m³, part cargo of 140,000m³.