The sea link between Motril Port and Al Hoceïma in Morocco has until now been for ferrying cars & passengers but now it is for heavy goods vehicles.

This Roll-on/roll-off (RoRo service) had been provided between Almería Port and Nador but with the first trial crossing from Motril a couple of days ago, the route is ready to roll.

We take it for granted but RoRo vessels have only existed since after World War Two: during amphibious operations specially adapted ships with opening bows were used to land vehicles directly onto a beach. These ships were LSTs or Landing Ship Tanks. Until then, vehicles had to be loaded and unloaded using dockside cranes (lift-on/lift-off or LoLo). A later development were container ships

Back to the present, this RoRo service sails each Monday and Thursday, which will handle a calculated 15 lorries a week. At this end, local company Hub Place will run a logistics centre for the storage and distribution of Spanish goods and send them via the RoRo ferries to their Moroccan sister company, Logisticx Maroc, which will move the goods to their destination.

“Our intention and that of the shipping company Armas-Trasmediterránea is to consolidate the sea link and in the near future increase crossings,” explained the company’s CEO Javier Rubiño.

Hub Place has a project for the construction of a logistics centre in the Zona de Actividades Logísticas del Puerto de Motril on a plot of some 10,000 sq/m, which will provide transport and commerce logistics between Andalucía and the rest of Spain.

Editorial comment: Motril Port, despite being held back by neighbouring Almería and Málaga ports, is growing in importance, and if the port economy grows, so does Motril’s.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)