History

In December 2005 the Port Authority of Barcelona launched a public tender for the construction and operation of the new Muelle Prat container terminal, located in the new phase of the Port de Barcelona, being the culmination of a stage of development that the Port de Barcelona initiated with its Director Plan in 1990. Hutchison Port Holdings Group and Grupo Mestre submitted a joint bid, combining the Group’s experience and Grupo Mestre’s local tradition in port operations at the Port de Barcelona.

In May 2006, the Port Authority of Barcelona awarded the concession contract to the bid submitted jointly by Hutchison Port Holdings and Grupo Mestre. In November 2006, the Muelle Prat concession was granted and the developing phase of the terminal was initiated by Hutchison Port Holdings, since 2011 the only remaining investor.

The construction and development of the terminal is a combination of experience and implementation of modern technology resulting in a great qualitative and quantitative leap in the design of container terminals.

In mid-2012 the new semi-automated terminal was named Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) and entered a new phase of testing. BEST was officially inaugurated on September 27th, 2012.

Since the launch of the terminal operations have far exceeded expectations and standards on which its design was based, making BEST a worldwide reference terminal. Hence, Hutchison Port Holdings decided to implement the semi-automated system to other terminals among the group.

With BEST’s effective and successful operations and the recognition received among its customers and users, Hutchison Port Holdings decided to continue developing BEST with a new phase of expansion to the terminal.