More than seven million tons of gypsum, the one with the highest load of this mineral in Spain
Sorbas plaster, which has been exported mainly through the Port of Garrucha for almost half a century, has become in recent years one of the most lucrative economic activities in the province. The figures speak for themselves: the Garrucha commercial dock -of regional ownership- exported 7.1 million tons of this mineral in 2020 and to a lesser extent some limestone, pozzolans, crushed marble and gravel, with a growth of 7.6 % over the previous year.
For its part, the Almería Port Authority, which also includes the industrial activity of Carboneras, loaded 3.1 million tons of merchandise abroad in the same period, mainly gypsum (2.6 million tons). These data assume that the Port of Garrucha exports more than twice as much merchandise as the docks of Almería and Carboneras combined.
The more than seven million tons of solid bulks in Garrucha report an approximate annual business of 45.5 million euros, only due to the extractive activity, taking into account that, to date, the ton of Spanish gypsum trades around 6.5 euros, according to the Mining Statistics.
Professionals participate in this activity in the quarry work, the trucking sector by road, the consignment and stowage and the Ministry of Development itself, to which the Andalusian Public Ports Agency (APPA) is attached. . For this autonomous body, the Port of Garrucha has been “manna” for years and its main source of income with a notable difference over other ports through the collection of different port fees that oscillate around 5% of the cargo. Garrucha is the only port attached to the APPA that computes commercial activity in its annual statistics, the rest -Carboneras, Roquetas, Adra, Caleta de Vélez, Fuengirola, Marbella, Estepona, Atunara, Barbate, Conil, Rota, Sancti Petri, Puerto América, Chipiona, Bonanza, Punta Umbría, Mazagón, Rompido, Terrón, Isla Cristina, Ayamonte and Villaricos – It only shows billing for the coffers of the Autonomous Administration for landed fish and for charging for sports berths.
Faced with such a large guaranteed entry of money, it is easy to deduce that the regional Administration is not in favour of the Garrucha Commercial Dock becoming state-owned like Carboneras, through the declaration of Port of General Interest. However, the volume of cargo it registers is such that it is difficult to understand that it remains within the regional sphere.
The Law of Legal and Economic Regime of Ports of Andalusia of 2007 does not specify a determined volume for a regional port to be managed by the State, although the Manual of Administrative and Maritime Law indicates that “an autonomous port must become of Interest General when the cargo or passage acquires sufficiently relevant levels ”.
The traffic of trucks that circulate from the quarry to the Port of Garrucha (30 kilometres) is about a thousand cargo vehicles per day and twice as many transits, according to a report from the Ministry of Development, even above the fleet that transport vegetables Almeria to Europe (around 800 trucks a day).
The concession for the gypsum quarry belongs to the multinational Iberplaco and also to the Torralba company. It is the largest gypsum mine in Europe with sufficient resources for several more decades. Hundreds of truckers, mainly from Sorbas and Los Gallardos, live off the transport of this mineral.
An ambitious expansion project
The Board’s Development Department has so much confidence that the Port of Garrucha will continue under its influence that they have awarded a feasibility study to expand the loading dock behind the current one. The Civil and Industrial Engineering Specialized Engineering company is already making a preliminary report valued at 127,446 euros, with an execution period that expires at the end of August.
The director of the APPA, Rafael Merino , has indicated that “the expansion will have a positive effect on the primary mining sector of the Levante of Almería and on the generation of employment in the area.” The project includes the doubling of the highway from Los Gallardos to Garrucha.
