Port of Málaga
Encyclopedia
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
in southern Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, on the Costa del Sol
Costa del Sol
The Costa del Sol is a region in the south of Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the Mediterranean coastline of the Málaga province. The Costa del Sol is situated between two lesser known costas: Costa de la Luz and Costa Tropical...
coast of the Mediterranean. It is the oldest continuously-operated port in Spain and one of the oldest in the Mediterranean.
Principal port activities include cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
ping and the importation of containerised
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
manufactured products, break bulk
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
and vehicles. A small fishing fleet
Fishing fleet
A fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing , or all fishing vessels of a country or region.Although fishing vessels are not formally organized as if they...
also operates from the port.
Ancient and medieval times
The Port of Malaka was founded by PhoeniciaPhoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
ns from Tyre in around 1000 BC. The name Malaka is probably derived from the Phoenician word for salt because fish was salted on the first dock; in other Semitic languages the word for salt is still Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
מלח mélaḥ or Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
ملح milḥ. This first dock was a single waterfront quay parallel to the shore and extending for about 500 metres from the customs house to the Puerta Oscura.
By Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times Malaka had become an important export port for minerals, pottery, almonds, wine and oil. An Iberian
Iberians
The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources identified with that name in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC...
delicacy was fish prepared with garum
Garum
Garum, similar to liquamen, was a type of fermented fish sauce condiment that was an essential flavour in Ancient Roman cooking, the supreme condiment....
, large quantities of which were also exported to Rome.
Trade continued to grow, peaking when Malaka (now Mālaqah (Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
مالقة) was declared the capital of the Islamic kingdom of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
. When the kingdom passed into Catholic
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...
control in 1487 the port assumed a strategic importance as an embarkation point for Spanish soldiers in the conquest of the Rif
Rif
The Rif or Riff is a mainly mountainous region of northern Morocco, with some fertile plains, stretching from Cape Spartel and Tangier in the west to Ras Kebdana and the Melwiyya River in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the river of Wergha in the south.It is part of the...
, Melilla
Melilla
Melilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...
, Peñon de Velez and Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, and was renamed the Port of Málaga.
Imperial Spain
The Port of Málaga grew swiftly throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, establishing itself as Spain's major export port for cereals and manufactures during the HabsburgHabsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...
and Enlightenment
Enlightenment Spain
The Age of Enlightenment came to Spain in the eighteenth century with a new Bourbon dynasty after the decay of the Spanish economy, bureaucracy, and empire in the latter years of the former Habsburg dynasty...
eras. In 1720 King Philip V
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
appointed French engineer Bartolome Thurus to prepare a project of port expansion for commercial and military needs, culminating in the construction of both the East Dock and the New Quay. The first lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
was built in 1814.
Twentieth Century
Between 1900 and 1910 an extensive reconstruction of port facilities resulted in the modernization of the existing quays and the completion of the current passenger terminal. The Málaga-PuertollanoPuertollano
Puertollano is an industrial city in province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is situated on the AVE High Speed Train line linking Madrid and Seville . The city has a population of 51,842 .- Legend of the lie :...
oil pipeline was completed by 1920, permitting oil exports directly from the port.
After the Second World War the importance of the port declined as new ports opened in North Africa and the Middle East, and post-war reconstruction led to the massive expansion of facilities at Port of Rotterdam
Port of Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, located in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004 it was the world's busiest port, now overtaken by first Shanghai and then Singapore...
and elsewhere. The Puertotollano pipeline ceased operation in the 1990s. Port operations were concentrated around ten wharves on the southern border of the existing port. The northern and central port areas were then progressively returned to the control of the city and converted for residential use.
Port facilities
Ten wharves are currently in operation at the Port of Málaga:- East Quay: Embarkation for cruise shipCruise shipA cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
. - Quay n°1 "Ricardo Gross": Megayatchs and touristic cruise ships.
- Quay n°2 "Guadiaro": Cruise ships.
- Quay n°3 "Canovas": Roll-on/roll-off.
- Quay n°4 "Heredia": Roll-on/roll-off, bulk liquids, break bulk.
- Quay n°5 Floating dock: Repairs and defence forces.
- Quay n°6 "Romero Oak grove 1": Bulk liquids, dangerous goods.
- Quay n°7 "Romero Oak grove 2": Bulk liquids, dangerous goods.
- Multipurpose Quay n°9: Containers, Roll-on/roll-off
- Soft Port 1: bulk liquid import/export where specialist equipment required.
The quays are connected by a system of internal roads and a network of internal and external railway lines . Access to the Port is via State Highways A-7 (Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
-Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
) that runs by the coast, and A-45 (Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
-Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
). The internal rail network links the Harbor Services Area with the Málaga Main Station.
The port is dominated by imports, principally an annal throughput of nearly 2 million tonnes of break bulk within a total annual throughput of 3.1 million tonnes. Major imports include cement, clinker coal, cereals, grains, petroleum coke and fertilizers. A substantially smaller export trade is centred on processed food and construction equipment.
The port handles in excess of 450,000 TEU
Twenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...
's annually, and 39,000 vehicles. Liquid bulk handling is approximately 70,000 metric tonnes per year, principally olive oil import and export.
Cruise shipping is also an essential industry at the port, with 211,000 passenger embarkations each year from more than 220 cruise ships.
Future works
An extensive program of works are planned for the Port as part of a Special plan developed by the City of Málaga.The Hereida Quay will be refurbished to expand port operation centres and provide an additional 500 car spaces. The works are estimated at 33 million euros. A new passenger terminal, port museum and environmental education centre are planned for inclusion in the cruise ship facilities at Quay 2 at a further cost of 22 million euros.
A commercial marina will also operate from Quay 1, catering for 24 superyachts of up to 30 metres, and the Eastern Quay passenger terminal will be remodeled to improve pedestrian access and double existing capacity to 560,000 passengers a year.
The total area of the new terminal is 1,270 m2, consisting of two heights and two new berths: Southern Berth and Northern Berth with a total construction cost of 21.3 million euros.