“The Port of Valencia is very important. Today we have visited it. It is the fourth port in Europe in container traffic and has the mechanisms for logistics and shipping management that battery manufacturing companies need. That is an essential point for battery companies; the port and its entire ecosystem, if there are no connections by sea, battery factories are not built, and the visit we have made today to the Port of Valencia has been extremely important, as it is a key point to take into account to make investments”.
Alfons Westgeest, the general manager of EUROBAT, the first European lobby of multinational electric battery companies, made this statement. He left no room for doubts in his answers to questions about the relevance of the Port of Valencia to attract industrial investment to the Valencian Community and about the impressions that had caused him to observe in person the terminals of the Valencian dock: “we are happy with the visit, they have shown us facilities such as the new terminal that is being built. It is quite impressive its connectivity and intermodality because it greatly facilitates the transfer and exchange of goods”.
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Alfons Westgeest, general manager Eurobat, and María Jose Mira, regional secretary for the Economic Model and director of Espais Econòmics Empresarials
Westgeest, accompanied by other EUROBAT representatives, this morning made a tour of the Port of Valencia accompanied by Francesc Sanchez, general director of the Port Authority and the deputy director, Ruben Marin.
After the visit, he appeared at a press conference in the Clock Building of the port, together with the regional secretary of Economic Model and councilor of Espais Econòmics Empresarials (EEE), María José Mira. Both have celebrated the results of the Eurobat Battery Convention and the eMobility Expo &World Congress and announced that the Eurobat Battery Convention will return again to Valencia in the 2024 edition, given the importance that its organizers have observed that this sector brings together in the Valencian Community.
New investments in the Comunitat
María José Mira has stated that the presence of the Generalitat Valenciana in this type of international congresses has helped battery manufacturing companies to consider the possibility of investing in Valencian lands. And he has revealed that the Generalitat is in contact with some of them. Companies that “would not necessarily be interested in locating in Sagunto, but in other enclaves of the Comunitat for all the synergies that the gigafactory will generate, either by the value of its human capital, such as contacts with suppliers, the quality of mobility infrastructure, communication and the challenge of improving them”.
Like the leader of EUROBAT, the representative of the Valencian Government also referred to the Port of Valencia, pointing out that its railway connections and connections with other ports in the world “were fundamental when Volkswagen decided to invest in the Valencian Community; both for its current activity and for the planned expansion and intermodality of its railway structure”.
EUROBAT members on a tour of the northern extension of the Port of Valencia that will house the new terminal
The EUROBAT lobby
EUROBAT is the leading association of European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers, covering all battery technologies. It has more than 50 members, including multinationals such as the German Frötek, the American Albermale, BorgWarner and Fiamm Group, the French Total, the Swiss Comet Group, the Japanese Mitsui Chemicals or Nissan, the Norwegian Freyr, the Austrian Rosendahl, the Dutch Euro Support or the Chinese CATL.
In total they have more than 30 battery manufacturing plants, 16 research centers and more than 30,000 employees.
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All multinational companies are part of the battery value chain, from lithium importers, through recycling to technological solutions for increasing the durability of resources.
Source: ValenciaPort
