The president of the Port of Tarragona closes his mandate by taking stock and making himself available to facilitate a quick and comprehensive transition for the new presidency in benefit of the organisation and the territory
Josep M Cruset: “This organisation now thinks big; it believes anything is possible and that the only limit is the one we impose on ourselves”
The Port is in fifth place in the 2021 state ranking and has an investment cycle of more than 100 million euros between 2018 and 2022
The TPA achieves the approval of the special ZAL urbanisation plan in one year (2019), construction begins in 2021 and its marketing is already underway
The Port promotes intermodal transport with the La Boella and GuadalajaraMarchamalo terminals, as well as participation in the Monzón IMT and the Llitera IMT
Port Tarragona is committed to respect for the environment, sustainability and safety
After almost four years at the head of the Tarragona Port Authority (TPA), the outgoing president, Josep M Cruset, today held a press conference to review his 2018-2002 mandate.
The aim, he stated, was to “close his mandate by taking stock, and offering a quick and thorough transition for the benefit of the organisation and the territory”.
Josep M Cruset took over the presidency of the Tarragona Port Authority having been mayor of Riudoms and vice-president of the Tarragona Provincial Government. At the time of his arrival at the Port, not without a certain amount of surprise, the journalist Carla Pomerol defined him in an interview for the local media as “the farmer’s son who looks at the sea”. A phrase that, as he himself acknowledges, not only explains his origins but also the values that drive the innovative and persevering spirit of the outgoing president of the Port of Tarragona.
Mr Cruset has always explained that those who live from the sea and those who live from the land have much in common. In more than one meeting with the residents of El Serrallo, Tarragona’s fishing quarter that has an intense relationship with the port, its most senior executive between 2018 and 2022 has explained that there is no profession more similar to that of a fisherman than that of a farmer. They both depend on the benevolence of the climate, are both physically very hard and mark the resilient and persevering character of those who exercise them. Josep M Cruset has transformed these traits into the guiding principles of his mandate at the head of the Port, as well as his particular way of being and doing, due to the fact that he is from a small town, rooted in the land and accustomed to fighting hard for each goal.
The beginnings
From the very first day (he was appointed on 23 November 2018), Mr Cruset has faced important future challenges as head of the Port of Tarragona. To begin with, a particular figure stands out: In 30 years, the Port of Tarragona has gone from being the third most important port on the Iberian Peninsula to occupying the seventh position, surpassed by other ports that in the 1990s were not even among the top positions. During those three decades, although its growth has been sustained and economically profitable, it turns out that its competitors have grown at a faster rate and they have ended up surpassing it. The diagnosis is clear: there are strategic projects and investments on the table that need to be fostered to achieve a modern and competitive Port of Tarragona in the short and medium term, given the loss of cargos such as coal that until now have been structural.
Horizon 2023, the new Port architecture
In the almost four years of his mandate as president of the Tarragona Port Authority, Cruset has listened to the different actors, analysed the situation and set out the strategic pillars for growth. Together with the Port Authority team he has set in motion an ambitious five-year, 150 million euro investment plan to prepare the Port for a radical paradigm shift based on traffic diversification, energy transition and sustainable economic transformation. The State Ports Authority has recently approved the Port of Tarragona Infrastructure Master Plan 2015-2035 after eight years of procedures. The plan contains the architecture of what will be the port of the future. The achievement of the main major investments of this plan converge in the year 2023, a date that will leave the Port well oriented to grow sustainably and strengthen the role of economic driving force it is already exercising for Catalonia and especially the Camp de Tarragona region. Horizon 2023 includes the new one-millionsquare-metre Logistics Activities Zone, the construction of the Guadalajara-Marchamalo PortTarragona Terminal 70 km from Madrid, the expansion and modernisation of the La Boella Terminal to handle 16 trains a day, and the preliminary work for the construction of the Ponent breakwater. These are “some of the milestones that have transformed the port and will allow Tarragona to consolidate itself in the medium term in fourth position behind the three major state ports, Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona”, according to Mr Cruset.
Priority: environmental sustainability
“Growth yes, but sustainable” has become a leitmotif of the TPA. A goal that Cruset has made a banner: “Fortunately, today economic growth is not understood if it is not accompanied by respect for the environment and the fight against climate change”, the Port president often explains. And since he believes that words should be accompanied by deeds, in July 2020 the TPA presented the Port of Tarragona Sustainability Plan-Agenda 2030, the first to be approved in the history of the institution. It consists of 3 pillars, 25 objectives and 88 actions, turning commitments into tangible and measurable actions. It is a plan that brings together ambitious projects such as the restoration of the 37 hectares of the Prats d’Albinyana nature zone in La Pineda (Vila-seca), a PEIN area of natural interest included in the Natura 2000 Network, work on which is ready to start. To this we can add projects such as the purchase of 100% green energy, the fitting of solar panels on the TPA facilities, the regeneration of the seabed with the immersion of biotopes, the protection of the Corsican seagull, the electrification of docks, the expansion of the fleet of electric and
hybrid vehicles, and the enhancement of the transport of goods by rail and intermodal transport with the La Boella and Guadalajara-Marchamalo terminals, and participation in the Monzón and Llitera TIMs. However, perhaps the most symbolic image of this commitment was the demolition of the cement works on the Aragon Wharf, avoiding the emission of up to 7,287.84 tons of CO2 a year.
The recovery of landscape areas has also been present in the TPA’s sustainable actions. An example of this is the recovery of a section of the Salou ring road, conditioning the remaining 1.250 kilometres of this coastal route and Racó de Salou area. The TPA has also planted native vegetation in industrial areas, such as the access to the Port via the Reus Wharf, and the placement of Mediterranean plants on the promenades and squares, roundabouts and gardens on the city’s seafront.
Another priority issue has been the push for greater control of port activities in terms of air quality. The Port of Tarragona has gone beyond adhering to the Air Quality Summit agreement and has taken action. Its Board of Directors has adopted specific instructions for the operations of coal, agri-food, phosphates, fertilizers and very pulverulent minerals to ensure that the companies operating in the port comply with environmental regulations. The Port has also recently invested more than 200,000 euros in the expansion of the Atmospheric Monitoring Network with seven new installations (six fixed and one mobile), in addition to the five already in place, in order to improve health and safety and environmental monitoring within the port area.
Sustainable economic growth
The commitment to an increasingly sustainable Port is shared with the region’s main administrations, institutions and businesses, but especially with Vila-seca town council, given that it is the municipality that will host an important expansion of the port’s facilities .
It is an agreement compiled and illustrated in the Callipolis Next Generation Project to convert an extensive area straddling La Pineda and the Port into a new industrial, logistics, intermodal, touristic and scenic economic driving force. This commitment was materialised in the unanimous approval in the most recent Board of Directors meeting of the action protocol between the TPA and Vila-seca town council that allows for the growth of the Port of Tarragona in a way that is compatible with the sustainable redefinition of La Pineda seafront, the environmental consolidation of the beach, the regeneration of the marine ecosystem and the impetus for a new model of sustainable tourism. The construction of the Ponent breakwater will be accompanied by actions such as the regeneration of the beach, the social use of the breakwater, the recovery of the Prats d’Albinyana nature area, the enhancement of the Roman archaeological site of Callipolis and the promotion of an interpretation centre for this natural space. At the beginning of this year, the necessary technical work and studies were commissioned and are now well advanced.
Complicated years overcome
The periods 2018-2022 have also been difficult years. The general political, economic and social crisis was added to by local phenomena that had a considerable impact on the Port of Tarragona. In October 2019, Mr Cruset had to face the effects of a new flood of the River Francolí that left a significant accumulation of logs and plant debris inside the port, placing navigational safety at risk. The following January, Storm Glòria caused more than a million euros in damage, especially to the Llevant breakwater, and immediately after that came the Covid-19 pandemic, linking waves between 2020 and 2021. During all that the port did not stop working for a single day. As it continued to maintain the supply chain, it ceded facilities to store sanitary material and, in recognition of the professionals involved, organised a photographic exhibition in tribute to the emergency services, among other solidarity actions.
The year 2021 also saw the fire on board the Elbeik in August 2021. This year, the effects of the war in Ukraine has led to very high operational demands on the trade in cereals, feed and flour and, very recently, the modernisation of the port stowage service. A collection of quite complex moments that, thanks to careful planning and the Port team, were not allowed to interfere with the implementation schedule of the TPA’s strategic objectives.
Growth in maritime traffic
Indeed, Mr Cruset took the reins of a port in seventh position in the state ranking and moved it up to fifth position in 4 years. In 2021, Tarragona is the revelation, not only for a fifth position that is nearing fourth (the difference was less than 25,000 tons), but also for being the port with the highest growth in the country’s top ten, with 19% more traffic. An intense commercial activity including a new ro-ro line with Turkey to transport Inditex products, a determined commitment to digitisation, a new Agribulk Delivery System (SEA), a traffic
diversification strategy, growth in general cargo with containers, vehicles, paper pulp and steel products all contributed to this increase in new traffic and helped to mitigate the loss of formerly consolidated but now obsolete cargos such as coal. And we still need to add a whole series of important and ambitious commercial projects that are now well advanced, and will be implemented in the coming months. These include new activities in the ZAL that will increase traffic in the port and at the same time generate thousands of jobs for the region; the new maritime container lines that will position the Port among the largest in the state system, and the upcoming private investments on the Chemicals Wharf that will represent a leap forward for the Port as a chemical hub.
Cruises, a historical record
Josep M Cruset’s mandate will also be remembered for consolidating the Tarragona cruise project by reaching a record number of passengers in the 2019 season. That year, the Port of Tarragona surpassed the figure of 130,000 passengers in 63 calls. A few months later, in April 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, work began on the new Balears Dock and 17 months later, in October 2021, this 30-million-euro infrastructure was inaugurated. The new 40,000-m2, 750-m-long dock allows three cruise ships to dock simultaneously and improves the safety and convenience of passenger boarding and disembarkation operations. In February 2022, Global Ports, the world’s largest cruise terminal operator, was awarded the concession for the new cruise terminal and committed to the construction of a modern, sustainable building of more than 3000 m2 with an operational investment of 5 million euros in 2023, the plans for which are already being expedited. This alliance represents a turning point in cruise tourism in our territory, which in less than 5 years will exceed 150,000 passengers per season and will become a first-class destination in the Western Mediterranean with a sustainable approach and the agreement of all the main institutions of the territory. This year, the activity has recovered its rhythm and the Port of Tarragona will end the season with 36 cruise ship calls and around 70,000 passengers. In 2023, the Port expects to welcome around 50 calls and a total of 90,000 passengers, including the request for 26 calls from MSC Cruises (approximately 50,000 tourists).
A leap forward in technology and digitalisation
Technological and digital updating has also been an objective of Josep M Cruset’s plans for Port Tarragona. It is a current challenge for all business organisations that want to be competitive on a European and global level. The Port of Tarragona has gained efficiency and competitiveness with the implementation of the SEA (Agribulk Delivery System), a tool designed to rationalise the loading of cereals to be transported by road, mainly to Catalonia and Aragon. The SEA distributes more than 4 million tons per year and has been extre3mely advantageous. It has led to a saving of 2.5 million euros a month in opportunity costs for
companies, an average reduction in waiting times of 50 minutes and a decrease in CO2 emissions.
At the same time, the Port has reinforced its fibre optic network inside the docks and modernised its servers, equipment and cyber security systems. It is the only port in Spain with a double certification in this field: the ISO 27001 in Information Security Management (SGSI) and the ENS-National Security Scheme certification. In this respect, entry controls to the Port have also been improved with various investments (cameras, applications, etc.) and the development of the Exit-SCT application, a new Crew Control System, given the
nature of the Port’s critical infrastructure.
Port safety and emergency management.
Another front that has been strengthened is industrial safety with the expansion and extension of the Fire Prevention Network across all the docks in the Port of Tarragona and also in El Serrallo and on the Costa Wharf. The TPA designed this system together with the fire prevention teams from the Chemical Park and the Fire Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It has deployed a system of 125 hydrants to deal with fires.
Another organisational and technological leap made in the last four years is the improvement of the emergency management system and the updating of the technical and digital resources to help decision-making in crisis situations. The new institutional headquarters building, which was refurbished between 2019 and 2021, houses the most modern crisis management room in the entire Spanish port system. It is equipped with a total of 15 screens offering online access to port, technical and meteorological information, video
communications, etc. and a video wall to access the more than 300 surveillance cameras and 300 sensors in the port. In addition, the TPA has signed an 800,000-euro agreement with the Generalitat de Catalunya Fire Service for the acquisition of a truck, equipment and training for the management of port emergencies. It has also joined the Catalan Xarxa RESCAT crisis communication system, which contributes to an improved integration and communication of the Port with its environment.
The maritime emergency action protocols developed by the Port of Tarragona were also at the heart of the signing of an agreement between the Maritime Safety Organisation and the Generalitat de Catalunya for the promotion of intervention groups to resolve maritime incidents This huge task to improve security and emergency management has been recognised with the granting of the ISO22230 Emergency Management certification.
Tarragona is the first port in Spain to obtain this recognition, making it a benchmark for the rest of the ports.
On the other hand, an emergency visualisation system using drones is being deployed. This will allow the emergency management room to have a direct view of possible emergencies and, at the same time, collect environmental information from the area around them.
The Costa Wharf, a cultural link with the city and its territory
Josep M Cruset has also boosted the cultural side of the Port through the facilities and activities of the Costa Wharf to the point that it received the Rambla de la Cultura recognition. Perhaps the most outstanding evidence is the rehabilitation of the Port Museum building and the redesign and modernisation of its exhibition facilities with an investment of more than two million euros (most of the funding achieved through the 2% cultural tax). The museum was reopened on 17 July 2021. Under this mandate the Museum turned 20 years old, the Port Archive celebrated its 30 years, the Teatret del Serrallo the 5th anniversary of its rehabilitation, etc. These are all venues that, through activities, talks, book presentations, etc. have contributed, together with the exhibitions and events held in the Tinglados and Refugis (former warehouses), to more than 179,000 people visiting the Port’s Costa Wharf every year. In this cultural section it is also worth noting the promotion of annual seasons of events such as the Havaneres del Port (this year celebrating 30 years), Racons de Mar (music in port spaces), Expressa’t (open to all the region’s music and dance schools),
Voramar, PortAutors, Cinema a la fresca, etc. mostly in spaces in the popular Serrallo fishing quarter.
Indeed, El Serrallo has also been an important target for Josep M Cruset. His relationship with the residents of this fishing quarter, marked by his previous experience as a mayor, has been very close and enveloped in a climate of collaboration for the improvement of the neighbourhood, the empowerment of its entities and the fostering of its popular culture. As a result of this joint work, the Port is implementing a plan to improve the seafront at a cost of more than one million euros. The new jetty is already operational, which allows a direct
view of the neighbourhood, and a roof has been built over the playgrounds that allows them to be used during the summer. In addition, the Port has been present in the recovery of festive elements, such as the Ball de Titans of the Gremi de Marejants, the Port neighbourhood Giants and the recovery of the Arrabassada neighbourhood Griu.
Furthermore, the Serrallo promenade and other spaces host events that attract thousands of visitors, including the Havaneres concerts and Cinema a la fresca.
The institutional headquarters, an icon of the city of Tarragona
The recovery of the institutional headquarters is one of the actions that the residents of Tarragona will surely remember most fondly. The refurbishment of the old, now new, Port Authority headquarters has been much celebrated by the people of Tarragona and represents the recovery of one of the city’s iconic images. The location and the original “brutality” of the building contributed with the remodelled seafront promenade –one of the first projects put into service by Josep M Cruset– to create a pleasant, accessible urban landscape, together with the Costa Wharf and the Serrallo waterfront. Together they form a harmonious and pleasant urban continuum with the rest of the city which, with these latest actions, reveals its full power. The institutional headquarters currently houses the offices of the Presidency, the General Directorate, the General Secretariat and Legal and Communication Services, as well as Maritime Rescue and the most advanced Emergency Management Room in the state port system.
Events with an international projection
The marketing strategy, together with the fact that the Port of Tarragona has become a benchmark in the logistics sector, has led it to increase its presence at international trade fairs –around 60 fairs and congresses by 2022– and in the organisation of events with national and international repercussions. One of the first global events of Josep M. Cruset’s mandate was the world paper and pulp industry summit, with the presence of more than 600 senior officials from the sector’s industries and logistics providers. A few months later, on 28 February 2020, the Port celebrated its 150th anniversary with an event hosting more than 800 people in Refugi 1 on the Costa Wharf, with the participation of the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, and the main authorities from all over the country, highlighting the leadership the institution has achieved in the territory and the country.
The Port has also organised sectorial meetings with an important international impact. Agrifood, a biennial agri-food event and Med Hub Day, on the logistics of chemical products, strengthen the Port of Tarragona’s leadership in the Mediterranean in these two sectors.
The Port also leads the promotion of intermodal transport through the Rail Day conference
it organises every year in this regard.
This year, during the month of June, the Port also became the focal point for the modernisation of the Spanish port system by holding of three workshops open to the institutional and technical managers of all the port authorities on cyber security and ICT, emergency management and legal innovations in port and maritime law, respectively.
Agile and transparent communication
One of Josep M Cruset’s premises is that public institutions must give transparent explanations of what they do. “You need to communicate what you do, how you do it and why you do it”, he says. For this reason, transparent communication has been a fundamental pillar of his management, proactively explaining, responding quickly to requests for information and providing all types of detailed information when requested or necessary.
Press conferences, press releases and attending to the media have been the most frequent channels to explain the Port’s activities, not forgetting social media, through which the president has transmitted the details of the port world and its management. For Cruset, the media and, more specifically, journalists are fundamental agents in achieving a full and healthy democratic society. A conviction that has been verified by actions such as the support for the Catalan Journalists’ Association Mañé i Flaquer Awards and the exhibition ‘Tarragona on lockdown. The hidden city’ in Tinglado 1 on the Costa Wharf with the participation of eleven photographers and photojournalists from Tarragona.
Communication with Tarragona society has also been carried out through guided tours of the port facilities, talks given to chambers of commerce and other professional and business bodies, neighbourhood associations, educational centres, etc., as well as the creation of two panels: the Port Tarragona Opinion Space, of a social nature, and the Economic Panel, made up of expert opinion-makers.
This commitment to agile and transparent communication has been recognised by professionals in the sector through the nomination of the Port of Tarragona on two occasions as a candidate for Petxina Oberta (Open Shell), a distinction given to those people or entities that, with their accessibility, have facilitated the informative work of the media.
Solvent financial management and modern internal organisation
The financial figures of Josep M Cruset’s management are also positive. Between 2018 and 2022, the TPA management team invested a total of 100.9 million euros and reduced its debt from 57.5 to 40 million euros, a decrease of 27%. These figures demonstrate sound economic management, despite the effects of Covid-19 on the world economy and, in particular, the local economy. The Port of Tarragona ended the 2020 financial year in the black, despite the serious logistics problems experienced during the pandemic. It also acted proactively to help companies financially by adopting support measures for the port community worth more than 25 million euros in actions such as injecting liquidity; by advancing payments to more than 400 companies (around 10 million euros); by postponing payments (around 13 million euros); and by lowering tariffs.
In the area of human resources, Mr Cruset has promoted tools to promote transparency and workers’ rights by organising a labour climate survey, an equality plan specific to the TPA, a professional code of ethics, an anti-fraud plan, a protocol against workplace harassment, ICT training, etc. in order to provide the TPA with a human resources policy aligned with the current needs of large organisations.
Port solidarity
The 2028-2022 period has also been characterised by intense social and solidarity work. In this period, 903,000 euros have been directly invested in 168 projects committed to the Port of Tarragona social environment. Specifically, in sponsorships and agreements in the cultural, sporting and social spheres, Port Tarragona has carried out a total of 92 actions at a cost of 623,000 euros; and in CSR and PortSolidari grants, 280,000 euros have been awarded to 76 projects, 10 of which are contributions from the Sílvia Cuesta Grants
managed by the PortSolidari workers’ group.
At the most difficult time, in the first months of the pandemic, the Port of Tarragona was one of the first local institutions to offer its facilities to the health system to contribute to the fight against Covid-19.
Subsequently, at the beginning of 2021, it reoriented its CSR policy to alleviate the effects of the pandemic through financial contributions to the Taller Baix Camp and its food aid programme; the Joventut i Vida Socio-Educational Association with the social canteen project in Bonavista; the Bona Nit Foundation and its programme to expand the rooms available for the homeless; and Caritas, the Red Cross and the Food Bank through PortSolidari actions and aid.
More recently, Port Tarragona acted as a logistics centre for the collection, sorting and forwarding of humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees following the invasion of their country by Russia, sending several lorries with hygiene products, food and clothing.
Modernisation and acceleration
For Mr Cruset “the Port’s successes are the result of the sum of the effort, work and capabilities of the entire port team”. The features that have characterised his four-year mandate at the head of the Tarragona Port Authority are not only marked by his family origins and years as a town mayor. To his capacity for resilience and perseverance, we have to add his involvement and professionalism. It is often commented that “his way of working is more that of a manager than a president; he is always at the coalface, always interested in being informed about everything, with the ability to anticipate, and with integrative leadership, always counting with the team”.
The port community and the different actors in the territory agree that at the end of his period as president of the Port, Josep M Cruset leaves a legacy of a lot of work carried out for the present and the future. The modernisation drive of recent years and the acceleration of strategic projects guarantee a solid present and a future growth for the Port of Tarragona through a whole series of projects successfully achieved: (the Balears Dock and the Port of Tarragona Master Plan); under construction (the ZAL, PortTarragona Terminal GuadalajaraMarchamalo, the Global Ports cruise terminal, Xarxa Natura 2000, etc.) and on rail (PortTarragona Terminal la Boella, the Ponent breakwater, the new rail accesses to facilitate the transhipment of goods to the interior, the expansion of the container terminal, etc.). All these will shape the architecture of the Port of Tarragona today and tomorrow.
In addition to all these advances already achieved, we can add the work to jointly implement the Ponent Breakwater project with Vila-seca; the Logistic Activities Zone; the Natura 2000 Network; and the recovery and stabilisation of La Pineda beach.
To all this, we must add the recent integration of the almost 200,000 m2 of new land acquired from the Generalitat de Catalunya around the Tarragona Educational Complex, which are key to guaranteeing the Port’s competitiveness, and the upcoming presentation of the study on the impact of cruises, in order to contrast scientifically and realistically the low environmental impact of this tourist activity on the city and the region.
In his closing press conference, the outgoing TPA president summarised this four-year stage: “We thought big to be big. At all times we have been clear that everything is possible and that the only limit is the one we impose on ourselves as an organisation and a territory”.
Josep M Cruset leaves behind a port that has been physically transformed, with a radically different organisational mentality that has consequently become a benchmark in the Mediterranean and European logistics sector, as well as a territorial reference in the economic, energetic and sustainable transformation of its hinterland.
Acknowledgements and a speedy and thorough transition
Finally, the press conference concluded with a few words from the Port president in which he thanked the 250 people who work at the TPA, the companies that operate in the Port, the institutions and entities of the city of Tarragona, Vila-seca and the entire economic and social milieu of the Port. In his final words, “I remain at the disposal of the new presidency for whatever they need”, he reiterated his full readiness to achieve a speedy and comprehensive transition for the benefit of the organisation and the region as a whole.
Tarragona, 19 October 2022
