Performance of the Car Carrier Shipping Sector in the Iberian Peninsula under the COVID-19 Scenario

Abstract

The Iberian Peninsula represents the second European producer and the eighth world producer of vehicles in 2020. The pandemic of SARS-CoV2 introduced severe challenges for the worldwide population and for the industrial production and supply chains. The car carrier shipping sector has not been studied in depth in the Maritime Transportation and Port Logistics literature. This research pays special attention to the performance of this traffic in the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-pandemic era and under COVID-19 pandemic conditions, in which seven ports with car-carrier ship traffic in the Iberian Peninsula are analyzed. First, a dynamic portfolio analysis about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the evolution of competitive positions of Iberian Peninsula ports is performed. Second, studies of the seasonality patterns of vehicle movements in ports of the Iberian Peninsula were carried out using time series of the periods from 2012 to 2019 and from 2012 to 2020. The Seasonal Variation Index (SVI) was employed to determine the seasonality of vehicle traffic in the periods considered and analyses were performed independently for both embarking and disembarking traffic. Important conclusions are revealed, e.g., during a year of COVID-19, the seven ports had decreased vehicle movements for disembarking traffic and only one port increased the traffic for embarking traffic. Furthermore, COVID-19 introduced important changes in the seasonality patterns of vehicle movements during the first months of the pandemic.

1. Introduction

There is a clear link between the automotive industry and the wheeled vehicle shipping industry. The two sectors are closely connected, as changes in car manufacturing have a direct impact on changes in maritime transport activities for these products, and therefore on port activities [1]. From this perspective, different studies have been carried out analyzing the two industries and their temporal variations, looking at the importance of the transport of goods by sea and its development [2]. However, a review of the relevant literature reveals that there is a lack of current literature analyzing the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the movement of vehicles in ports.

In regard to this, the need has been identified to deepen the analysis of the situation and its variation from a consolidated period, such as the years between 2012 and 2019, and the period where there was an impact due to the pandemic and for which reliable data are available, which is the year 2020, as the year 2021 does not yet have complete information.

This research paper will explore this gap in the literature by analyzing the variation in a key geographical area, the Iberian Peninsula, which controls much of the maritime Pure Car Carrier (PCC) and Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) traffic in south-western Europe [3]. A detailed study of incoming and outgoing vehicles traffic in the main ports of Spain and Portugal will be presented, comparing the data prior to the pandemic with the data for the year 2020, impacted by the COVID-19 situation. This work presents in an innovative way the contrast between one situation and the other, and a series of significant conclusions can be drawn in this sense.

First of all, it is necessary to take an overview of both the automotive sector and the maritime traffic sector for this type of cargo.

One of the main motivations of this research is the importance of vehicle production in the Iberian Peninsula. As can be shown in Figure 1, Iberian Peninsula occupied the eighth position in worldwide vehicle production, and the second in Europe, in 2019 and 2020 [4]. Both Spain and Portugal are home to important factories of the most important vehicle brands. Some car models are worldwide exclusively produced in the vehicle factories of the Iberian Peninsula. Much of the vehicle production of the Iberian Peninsula is exported. For instance, in 2020 86% of the Spanish vehicle production was exported [5], in which maritime transport plays a key role.

Major globalized sectors were hit hard by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, causing an abrupt change in business prospects and results in the short, medium and long term [6]. The automotive sector, one of the most important sectors worldwide, suffered a major impact and had to change its sales strategies as quickly as possible [7], but without being able to achieve results that live up to the expectations of previous years.

Representative data on the situation of the automotive industry include the 72.4% drop in sales in Russia in April 2020, and the decline of German sales to 1990 levels, after unification. Toyota fell by 22.6%, and Nissan by 43% [8]. Of course, these data from the automotive industry were transferred to other sectors, which are closely linked to the automotive sector, such as component manufacturing, raw materials and logistics [9].

In terms of maritime traffic, as has been seen in other largely globalized sectors, the industry was quickly shaken by the impact of the pandemic, with a sharp drop in all types of maritime traffic, car-carrier, dry bulk shipping, tanker and Liquefied Natural Gas, container shipping, cruise sector, etc. [10]. In order to understand the extent of the impact of the pandemic on the maritime sector, some publications of interest are presented below. Although they are from other areas of the sector, this serves to contextualize the sector as a whole and thus better understand what has happened in the car carrier shipping sector, and more specifically in the Iberian Peninsula. Starting with cruise ships, the recent research of Silva [11], has identified the impact in the Florida area, where the crisis had a strong direct impact on the sector and an indirect impact on all sectors dependent on it. Added to this is the uncertainty and risk posed by maritime transport, which has been identified as a source of rapid spread of the virus due to the international transport of goods and people. This uncertainty translates into the possibility of preventing ships from docking in port due to sanitary measures, or the obligation to quarantine passengers, crew and cargo. In other areas of the shipping industry, such as ship inspection and certification, the impact of the pandemic meant that inspections were delayed and therefore affected the operability of ships, in response, Classification Societies and flag administrations have come up with a temporary measure by granting a 3-month extension of ship surveys [12].

Looking at the international horizon, the impact on many countries dependent on the maritime sector became more acute, as it is not only a key sector for their economies, but also a necessity to be able to receive commodities through maritime traffic, as was the case in Malaysia [13]. A recent study on the impact on the maritime sector in India found that only 8% of organizations in the sector were able to adapt to the crisis, 4.6% had to shut down operations completely, 31% were able to operate with delivery delays, and 56% had significant operational losses and delays [14].

A very significant factor to take into account in the analysis of the COVID-19 crisis in any sector is the consideration of the periods of the pandemic waves, starting from the stricter confinement of the first wave, with the upturns of cases that the other waves entailed, a situation that other authors such as Rothengatter, et al. [15] have studied in the global transport sector.

For its part, the European Union (EU), through the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), has developed a report to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the maritime sector in the EU [16], deepening the impact on EU traffic and trade, EU fleet, shipyard and ship repair activity, the ferry and cruise industry, and safety and environmental inspections. This report identifies heavy losses in all areas of the sector, showing a start of recovery in the last months of 2020.

The port sector has suffered significant losses due to the pandemic, but on the other hand is in a process of continuous improvement due to the high level of maritime traffic and the strong economic impact of port activities. Recent researches are seeking to improve the data available to ports, for example with systems that allow the extraction of berthing information from ships using three-dimensional radar and light detection data [17]. Other research, such as that carried out by Martínez-Moya and Feo-Valero [18], is developing new indicators to measure port connectivity, in order to make shipping companies aware of the competitive advantages of ports, especially smaller ones. All this brings substantial improvements in the operability of port activities, thus optimizing the control of tasks and allowing a greater number of vessels to operate in less time.

In the field of car-carriers and roll on–roll off (Ro-Ro) vessels, an increase in the market has been identified in the years prior to the pandemic, this increase in the sector identifies the need to improve these vessels and their operation, in this aspect it is necessary to identify optimal routes by analyzing the social and political requirements of the market [19]. As has been shown, the car-carrier sector is closely linked to the automotive sector, and this has been reflected in recent research into the prediction of the automotive sector in order to optimize the car-carrier fleet and its operability [20].

In addition, the vessels and their modes of operation are being studied, with systems to improve the selection of ports of origin and destination of these vessels, reducing the movements and transport time of manufactured vehicles [21]. Other work focuses on reducing the time that car-carriers are in port by optimizing the location of cars at ro-ro terminals [22], as well as using techniques for simulating port movements and automating the loading of cars onto ships, using the latest artificial intelligence and simulation technologies [23]. Additionally, these studies keep sight of future objectives such as increasing the sustainability of the sector and integrating the transport of car carriers into an intermodal transport chain [24].

All these studies are helping to improve the sector and are undoubtedly aimed at optimizing the activities of ships and port terminals. As can be seen in some current studies, such as those carried out by van Tatenhove [25] or Psaraftis [26], in order to ensure a stable future in the car carrier industry, adaptation to the situation following the COVID-19 pandemic is needed. For all these reasons, this research can be considered as relevant to the maritime sector, as it is necessary to develop research that analyzes the impact that the pandemic has had on the sector and the conclusions derived from it.

2. Aim and Structure of This Work

The main purposes of this research is to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on pure car carrier traffic in one of the most important regions of vehicle production, the Iberian Peninsula, and to analyze the competition behavior between the different Iberian ports. This view allows the stakeholders to know how the competitive position of the ports change and helps them to manage their market strategies. Different techniques are applied from the dynamic portfolio analysis using the Boston Consulting Group’s matrix to seasonality variation index, in order to analyze the PCC/PCTC traffic in the Iberian ports by referencing the last nine years.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 3 presents a sample of ports of the Iberian Peninsula with car-carrier traffic and the methodology to determine their competitive positions and to analyze the seasonality of the traffic. Section 4 shows the results of the evolution of the competitive positions prior to the COVID-19 crisis and during the COVID-19 year. Additionally, Section 4 includes the seasonality patterns obtained for each port for both pre-pandemic era and under COVID-19 conditions. In Section 5, the implications of the results are discussed, in light of these questions: (1) What was the competitive position of each port in the pre-pandemic era, and how has the competitive position changed under COVID-19 conditions? (2) What was the seasonality pattern of the traffic for each port, and was it affected by COVID-19 conditions? Section 6 ends the study with the conclusions and future perspectives of the research.

3. Materials and Methods

In this section we present an overview that includes the data used to carry out the research, the metrics of the car-carrier traffic in ports of the Iberian Peninsula, and methods applied to determine the competitive positions and to analyze the time series of car-carrier traffic.

A detailed description of the methodology used can be shown in Figure 2. This chart shows how the research is conducted. First of all, an analysis of the number of ports on the Iberian Peninsula hosting car-carrier traffic should be carried out. Then, data mining and processing are performed, using the number of vehicle movements per port. These steps let us to accomplish a dynamic portfolio analysis and the calculation of SVI. As a consequence of previous computations, some results are derived: the port’s competitive positions and the seasonality patterns of this maritime traffic. Finally, some conclusions are obtained from the data computed, for instance, the evolution of competitive positions and the changes in seasonality patterns of car-carrier traffic.

The variable used to identify the ports of the Iberian Peninsula with car-truck carrier ship traffic was the number of vehicles handled during the period 2012–2020. The time span to be analyzed was selected taken into account the availability of data, but it was not possible to consult vehicle movement statistics prior to 2012. Specifically, the statistics referring to the following types of vehicles, cars, buses and trucks, were used. Among the 38 commercial ports situated on the Iberian Peninsula, six Spanish ports, Barcelona, Pasajes, Santander, Tarragona, Valencia and Vigo, and one Portuguese port, Setúbal, are the ones that concentrated the highest PCC/PCTC ship traffic [27,28]. Therefore, the research was conducted using the set of ports composed by: Barcelona, Pasajes, Santander, Setúbal, Tarragona, Valencia, and Vigo.

During the period from 2012 to 2018, the traffic of vehicles grew at an average annual rate of 5.4%, which means six consecutive years of growth from 2013 to 2018. In 2019, there was a slightly loss of traffic of 0.4%. However, in 2020 (COVID-19 year) the traffic of vehicles through the ports of the Iberian Peninsula falls dramatically, 25.3% with respect to 2019. From 2015 to 2019 the milestone of 2.5 million vehicles imported and exported through the ports of the Iberian Peninsula was over-come, but in 2020 the throughput of vehicle traffic dropped to a level similar to year 2014, see

Table 1. Vehicle movements during the period 2012–2020 in the ports of the Iberian Peninsula with PCC/PCTC ship traffic.

Year	Barcelona	Valencia	Santander	Vigo	Pasajes	Setúbal	Tarragona	Total
2012	670,949	413,777	434,030	270,885	197,712	136,360	57,286	2,180,999
2013	709,645	465,419	497,365	315,701	201,122	124,749	63,054	2,377,055
2014	753,276	492,279	421,502	377,454	222,568	149,039	59,876	2,475,994
2015	886,980	686,555	441,304	460,991	245,184	168,714	113,879	3,003,607
2016	917,617	773,694	457,476	494,051	248,549	171,591	153,314	3,216,292
2017	836,720	793,093	486,305	496,495	234,708	223,668	200,360	3,271,349
2018	809,158	818,225	451,111	488,144	254,673	273,604	194,738	3,289,653
2019	777,177	720,857	481,277	466,158	273,275	347,228	211,205	3,277,177
2020	478,142	529,133	512,788	324,208	236,381	238,145	128,070	2,446,867
Total	6,839,664	5,693,032	4,183,158	3,694,087	2,114,172	1,833,098	1,181,782

Source: own elaboration.

. The port of Barcelona had the highest throughput of vehicle movements with 6.8 million during the period analyzed, followed by the port of Valencia with 5.7 million. Additionally, the port of Barcelona from 2012 to 2017 and in 2019 was the main port moving vehicles, however, in 2018 and 2020 the leadership was taken by the port of Valencia, see Table 1.

The total vehicle movement throughput of each port is composed of import and ex-port flows. Regarding the export traffic, there is a direct link between the vehicle production factories located in Portugal and Spain and the port through which they export part of their production. That is, if the factory is placed in the hinterland of the port that runs as a gate for vehicle exportation. Figure 3 shows the locations of vehicle factories on the Iberian Peninsula and the seven ports with PCC/PCTC ship traffic. Moreover, the port terminals used to export vehicles also have the role of gateways for import traffic of vehicles that are produced abroad.

Specifically, the exportation of vehicles is made through the port closest to the vehicle factory. In particular, Ford uses the port of Valencia; the port of Vigo is employed by the group PSA (brands Citroën and Peugeot); the factories of Audi, Nissan and Seat employ Barcelona, and the Volkswagen vehicles manufactured in Portugal are exported through the port of Setúbal. Some ports export vehicles of several brands because the factories are situated away from the port terminal. Some examples are: the port of Santander is used by Iveco, Nissan and Renault; the port of Tarragona is the gateway for the Opel factory in Zaragoza; and the port of Pasajes is used by Mercedes and Volkswagen factories in Spain; see Figure 3.

Fleisher and Bensoussan [29] defined the competitive position of an organization as the position of an organization compared to its competitors in the same market or industry. Therefore, an analysis of competitive positions of a set of ports will enable port authority managers to gain insights into the structure of the traffic flows as well as their port’s past performance in comparison with their competitors. There are several methods to measure and identify the competitive position of a set of ports, among which the growth-market share matrix or Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix stands out. This matrix is divided into four quadrants, each of which corresponds to a market position, see Figure 4. For the period analyzed, the border on the X axis is defined by the average market share and the border in the Y axis is defined by the average growth rate of all the ports analyzed.

Minor performers and star performers represent the least and the most auspicious ports, respectively. Star performers represent dominant ports with high market share and high growth. However, this status might not be sustained long term [30]. Minor performers represent ports with low growth rates that are less than the average growth rate, small market share and overall port performances that are not good in comparison with the others. High potential represents high growth but low market share ports; the ports that belong to this category have typically not achieved mature status yet and might move to star status if they can improve performance by remaining their high growth rate and gain more market share from their rivals over time. Lastly, the mature leaders within this matrix represent ports that have reached maturity and have well established positions with low growth rate and high market share. Through these four categories of the growth-market share matrix, the analyzed ports will be positioned within the matrix based on the vehicle traffic of each port.

The static growth-market share matrix is an analysis technique used to assess the current position of the ports through the analysis of the relationship between the growth rate and the market share. However, some authors, such as David and David [31], have pointed out that a main drawback of the growth-market share matrix is that it simply provides a temporary position of a company at a specific point in time. That is, it does not show the dynamic position of the company over time. Therefore, in this work a dynamic portfolio analysis based on the BCG matrix is carried out to address this issue. A portfolio analysis is based on the principles of the growth-market share matrix, but provides a dynamic view of the progress of port positions over a distinct span of time [30].

This methodology has been applied in numerous research works devoted to container ports [32,33,34]. However, there are few works that apply the growth–market share matrix to ports with PCC/PCTC ship traffic [35]. This work is pioneering in the application of this methodology to determine the competitive positions of ports of the Iberian Peninsula with PCC/PCTC ship traffic.

In this work, the period 2012–2020 was analyzed. The competitive positions analysis was divided into two stages. For the first stage, the period from 2012 to 2019 (pre-pandemic era) was studied dividing it into two sub-periods, one being composed of the years from 2012 to 2015, and the other from 2016 to 2019. The second stage covered the years from 2018 to 2020. Through this approach, it was possible to determine how the competitive positions of the ports have changed over time in the pre-pandemic era (years 2012–2019) and during the pandemic (year 2020). Moreover, through an exclusive analysis of the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 we want to capture the effects of the extraordinary situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 in the performance of car-carrier ship traffic. In addition, the study was performed independently for the vehicle embarkation (export flow) and the vehicle disembarkation traffic (import flow).

Regarding the assessment of the seasonality pattern of vehicle traffic of each port, the variable used to carry out the analysis was the monthly registers of vehicle traffic of each port divided in embarking movements and disembarking movements. The analysis was conducted for two periods, 2012–2019 (pre-pandemic era) and 2012–2020, to determine if the COVID-19 outbreak affected the seasonality pattern of vehicle traffic in the ports analyzed. Moreover, the time series of embarkation traffic and disembarkation traffic were analyzed independently. Specifically, the time series of the period 2012–2019 is composed of 96 observations, and the 2012–2020 period is composed of 108 observations.

To determine the seasonality pattern of each port, the first step is to identify the type of model associated with the time series: additive or multiplicative. To do this, a numerical method consistent for analysis of the variability of coefficient of variation of seasonal differences (CV(d)) and coefficient of variation of seasonal ratios (CV(k)) was used. If CV(d) ≤ CV(k), the additive model is chosen; otherwise, the multiplicative model is chosen.

For each port, the time series follows a multiplicative model. In this type of time series, the seasonal component is measured by an index called the Seasonal Variation Index (SVI), which is calculated with Equation (1). This index represents the value fluctuation of the series with respect to the value of the annual average trend, it is expressed as a per-centage.

$$\mathrm{SVI}(\mathrm{month}i)=\left(\frac{\frac{1}{N-1}\sum \frac{y_{it}}{t{c}_{it}}}{\frac{1}{12}\sum \left(\frac{1}{n-1}\sum \frac{y_{it}}{t{c}_{it}}\right)}\right)\cdot 100,$$

(1)

where y_it is the data in year t and month i; tc_it is the moving average in year t and month i; N is the number of years; and i varies from 1 to 12.

4. Results

4.1. Competitive Positions during Pre-Pandemic Era and Pandemic Year

The results for the pre-pandemic era (period 2012–2019) are as follows. Figure 5 shows the results of competitive positions for vehicle embarking traffic. The port of Vigo has maintained the position of mature leader during both periods, this position is fundamentally linked to the high market share it has. Barcelona has evolved from the position of star performer to mature leader; that change is associated with a decrease in the growth rate. The port of Valencia changed from star performer quadrant during the period 2012–2015 to mature leader quadrant in the period 2016–2019. The main factor that explains this movement is the decrease of the growth rate registered during 2016–2019, although Valencia increased its market share during the period from 2016 to 2019. The increase in the growth rate registered by the ports of Setúbal and Tarragona during the period from 2016 to 2019 led to their evolution to the position of high potential, especially in the case of Setúbal. The port of Santander dropped from its high potential position to minor performer position in the period 2016–2019, due to the decrease in the growth ratio. Finally, the port of Pasajes remained during both periods as a minor performer, registering a decrease of market share during the period 2016–2019.

Figure 6 shows the results of the competitive positions for vehicle disembarking traffic. The ports of Barcelona, Santander and Valencia have evolved from the position of star performer to mature leader. Santander has changed its position mainly due to a decrease in its growth ratio. In the case of the ports of Valencia and Barcelona the change was due to both a decrease in the market share and a decrease in the growth ratio. The ports of Setubal and Tarragona remained in the position of high potential during the two periods, although with a significant growth in the market share during the period from 2016 to 2019. Finally, the ports of Pasajes and Vigo remained as a minor performer during the two periods analyzed. Pasajes registered a huge drop in the market share during the 2016–2019 period. Regarding the port of Vigo, during the period 2016–2019 registered an average growth of 8.7%, which positioned it close to the border of high potential quadrant.

Regarding the analysis focused on the year of the COVID-19 outbreak the results for the embarking traffic are detailed next. With the exception of the port of Vigo, the remaining six ports registered a fall in the growth ratio of vehicle traffic, see Figure 7. The port of Vigo was the only that had an increase of vehicle traffic in 2020. Moreover, it maintained the position of star performer and reached the highest market share among the seven ports analyzed. The ports of Valencia and Barcelona remained at the mature leader quadrant during the three years studied. In 2020, they lost both market share and growth ratio. In 2020, the four ports that were situated as high potential in 2019 dropped to the position of minor performer.

In the case of the disembarking traffic the results are as follows. In 2020, all the ports have registered a decrease in the growth ratio higher than a 30%, see Figure 8. The drop in the growth ratio changed the competitive position of 5 ports with respect to the position in which they were located in 2019. The extraordinary adverse conditions of year 2020 disrupted the positive dynamics of the ports of Pasajes, Setubal, Tarragona and Vigo registered in 2019. Vigo and Setubal were positioned as having high potential in 2019, however the loss of growth ratio moved them to minor performer quadrant. Tarragona dropped to minor performer in 2020, losing the very positive position of star performer that it had during 2019. Pasajes remained during the three years as a minor performer, however, the fall of 31% in disembarking traffic in 2020 moved it away from the high potential quadrant. The port of Santander remained as mature leader in 2020, although with a significant decrease of vehicle traffic of 40% with respect to 2019. The ports of Valencia and Barcelona moved from star performer to mature leader in 2020. Barcelona in 2020 also lost market share, whereas Valencia gained market share reaching a market share of 29.4% in 2020, the highest of the ports analyzed.

4.2. Seasonality of Vehicle Traffic during Pre-Pandemic Era and Pandemic Year

Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13, Figure 14, Figure 15, Figure 16, Figure 17, Figure 18, Figure 19, Figure 20, Figure 21 and Figure 22 show the representation of the seasonality patterns obtained for each port analyzed and for the categories of disembarkation and embarkation traffic. The vehicle traffic in the ports of the Iberian Peninsula has a seasonal behavior. The peak-season months are identified by SVI values greater than 100, while the low-season months are identified with SVI values below 100.

5. Discussion

This section is devoted to the results obtained and it is divided into three sub-sections. Section 5.1 includes the discussion about the changes in competitive positions. Section 5.2 deals with discussion of the features of the seasonality pattern of the traffic of each port and the changes registered in the seasonality patterns due to COVID-19 pandemic. Section 5.3 discusses the uses of car terminals for importing and exporting purposes.

5.1. Changes in Competitive Positions

Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7 and Figure 8 reveal a dynamical behavior of the competitive position of the ports analyzed for both embarking and disembarking. Barcelona and Valencia are the ports with the best positions for both traffics during the pre-pandemic era. Furthermore, some ports had different competitive position depending on the type of traffic. For instance, the port of Vigo is a mature leader for embarking traffic whereas it is a minor performer for disembarking traffic.

According to Figure 7, six out of seven ports registered negative growth ratio. The loss of growth ratio was situated in the range of −13% (Pasajes) and −36% (Barcelona). The ports of Barcelona and Valencia lost a great market share in embarking traffic during the year of COVID-19, which it is directly related to vehicle production in factories of the Iberian Peninsula. The main reasons of these losses are: (a) the fall of industrial activity caused by COVID-19 pandemic, mainly the lockdowns, and (b) the closing of production lines of some brands, due to the movements to other countries. These negative results were a consequence of the drop of vehicle production of 19.6% in Spain and 23.6% in Portugal in 2020 with respect 2019 [5]. Specifically, Barcelona lost 183,699 and Valencia 107,548 vehicle movements in 2020, these are the highest losses in this traffic category. The port of Vigo was the only (out of seven) that increased its market share and had positive growth ratio for the embarking traffic in 2020 with respect to 2019. In 2020, it registered 63,135 vehicle movements more than in 2019.

The embarking traffic predominates in six of the seven ports. Pasajes and Vigo are the ports with the highest ratio of embarking traffic, for the former represents the 92.5% and for the latter represents the 86.1% of the total traffic. For the ports of Barcelona, Santander and Valencia the embarking traffic is situated in the range between 60% and 70%. The port of Setúbal had the most balanced traffic of the seven ports analyzed, in which the embarking traffic predominates with a share of 56.2%. Only in the port of Tarragona the disembarking traffic is higher with a share of 64.1%.

For the disembarking traffic, the seven ports registered negative growth ratios in 2020, see Figure 8. The disembarking traffic were affected by the lockdowns/border closure of the vast majority of countries and by the reduction of industrial production during the first months of the pandemic [36]. The top ten vehicle producing countries registered production losses in 2020 [4], which had a direct impact on vehicle logistics. Furthermore, in 2020 the sales of vehicles in Spain fell a 31.3% and the 77.7% of the vehicles sold were produced abroad [5]. These issues made great barriers to maintain the supply chain of vehicle logistics. The highest losses were registered by the ports of Barcelona (115,336 vehicle movements) and Valencia (84,176 vehicle movements).

The distribution of embarking and disembarking traffic identified in each port led to classify the ports analyzed into two categories. On the one hand, “export gateway” ports are those in which clearly predominates the embarking traffic, i.e., Pasajes and Vigo. On the other hand, the “balanced gateway” ports are characterized by a quite similar quota for both traffics, i.e., Valencia and Barcelona.

5.2. Time Series Analysis

The time series based on SVI shows similar trends in the first period analyzed. The vehicle traffic in the ports of the Iberian Peninsula have seasonality, with peak- and low-season months. If the time series of 2020 are added to the latter, significant changes are found. Negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are detected from March. In that month, the global pandemic due to the COVID-19 virus was declared by the World Helath Organization [37] and lockdowns were established for most of the European countries. Two types of effects are detected: structural and circumstantial. The first one is related to vehicle traffic distribution across the year (embarking and disembarking). The second one refers to changes of the seasonal activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

January constitutes a low-season month in most of the Iberian ports (five of seven) for disembarking vehicle traffic, whereas Tarragona and Santander were in their peak-season month. A low increase is observed in all periods studied with respect to the period 2012–2019. Regarding embarking traffic, January is a low-season month for all Iberian ports (seven of seven).

In contrast, February is a peak-season month in disembarking traffic in most ports (six of seven). Barcelona continued in low season. Port of Pasajes, Santander and Tarragona had the highest activity during this month. Regarding embarking traffic, this month constituted peak season in all Iberian ports (seven of seven).

Considering that most of restrictions and lockdowns started in March, a special analysis of this month should be done. The lockdowns did not affect the vehicle carrier traffic instantaneously. The time series from 2012 to 2020 shows a higher SVI for some Iberian ports if it is compared with the time series of 2012 to 2019 (Barcelona, Setúbal and Vigo). For instance, Setúbal had the highest activity record in disembarking traffic. Most of the Iberian ports were in peak season, and no high impact of the lockdowns was found.

Then, in April and May, the COVID-19 pandemic impact was clear. When the SVI index from the 2012 to 2020 period is compared with the 2012–2019 period, both disembarking and embarking traffic suffered losses. This tendency was reported by different organizations. For instance, EMSA [16] noted losses in the same period in all maritime traffics.

The month of June presents different behavior for embarking and disembarking traffic. Regarding disembarking, SVI in the period of 2012–2020 shows a minor activity compared with the period of 2012–2019 for all the ports analyzed, as can be noted in Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13, Figure 14, Figure 15, Figure 16, Figure 17, Figure 18, Figure 19, Figure 20, Figure 21 and Figure 22. For instance, for the ports of Barcelona, Santander, Setúbal and Valencia more than 50% of the total losses of 2020 in embarking traffic were registered during the period from April to June. April and May were the months of the year with loss of traffic for the port of Vigo. The biggest loss was registered by the port of Valencia with 65% of the total losses. Similar results were obtained for the disembarking traffic. In most cases the second trimester of the year concentrated more than the 40% of the total losses. In this case, the ports of Valencia and Setubal highlight with a loss of 57 and 54%, respectively.

Activity for embarking and disembarking was totally recovered in July. For vehicle disembarking in this month, it is the low season in most of the Iberian ports (four of seven). In contrast, for embarking, July was a peak-season month for all of them (seven of seven). The port of Vigo registered its highest activity.

August was the month with the lowest activity in the year for all period analyzed and for both traffics. Significant differences are found if the activity is compared with the rest of the months for all ports. For instance, in vehicle disembarkation Setúbal port registered 2.5× less activity in this month compared with March (the busiest month). The activity continued in the low season during September for both embarking and disembarking traffic. Only Pasajes registered peak season for embarking.

Peak season is observed in Barcelona, Pasajes, Setúbal Valencia and Vigo for vehicle embarkation in October. Regarding disembarking traffic, four of seven ports registered peak season too. These tendencies are in accordance with other statistics [16] that show the trade start to recover activity for most of the maritime traffic. November continued in peak season for both embarking (five of seven) and disembarking (four of seven). Barcelona registered its highest activity during this month for disembarkation traffic.

Finally, following the previous tendencies, five of seven Iberian ports were in peak season in December for disembarking traffic. Vigo registered its highest activity. In contrast, for embarking six of seven Iberian ports registered low season, only the port of Vigo was in peak season.

In a general view, there are clear differences among the months. SVI shows that car vehicle movements in Iberian ports were significantly affected for three months out of the ten affected by the pandemic in 2020. Activity was recovered in the last part of the year, and it also shows peak-season months in most of ports. It shows the resilience of maritime transport under the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The patterns of the activity were totally recovered. SVI shows that COVID-19 pandemic did not block the Pure Car Carrier maritime traffic, since this index would be zero if activity was totally stopped. April and May were the most affected months by COVID-19 pandemic as can be deduced from SVI graphs (see Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13, Figure 14, Figure 15, Figure 16, Figure 17, Figure 18, Figure 19, Figure 20, Figure 21 and Figure 22). These tendencies are in line with that reported by EMSA [16] for most of maritime traffics.

5.3. Port Terminals

In the case of the situation of vehicle factories and the ports through which the production is exported we can identify both captive and competitive hinterlands. The captive hinterland refers to the market area for which a terminal is the closest or the easiest to access. It is assumed that the majority of the traffic will pass through the terminal because of proximity and the lack of competitive alternatives. The competitive hinterland is used to describe the market areas over which a terminal has to compete more intensively with others for business [38]. All the ports analyzed have the dual role of import and export gateways because the requirements of the port terminal for both traffics are similar [1]. Although each port has different shares of embarking and disembarking traffic as we pointed out above. As captive hinterlands we can identify the vehicle factories of: PSA Group for the port of Vigo, Ford for the port of Valencia, and Volkswagen Autoeuropa for Setúbal. Therefore, the exportation of the production of the above three factories is a captive traffic for the geographically closest port. According to García, et al. [39], in the case of automobile factories geographically distant from the ports through which they can export, there may be competition among them for this type of traffic and the port that provides competitive advantages over the others will be able to move a greater quantity of products. In this sense, for instance, the situation of the factory of Opel in Zaragoza constitutes a competitive hinterland for the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, as can be seen in Figure 3.

6. Conclusions

The following relevant conclusions can be highlighted from the conducted research:

• The analyzed ports show a dynamical behavior, as six out of seven ports changed their competitive position within the studied period.
• For embarking and disembarking traffic, four out of seven ports changed to a worse competitive position during the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Barcelona and Valencia are mature leaders for embarking and disembarking traffic of vehicles in the Iberian Peninsula.
• The port of Vigo has a strong embarking character.
• The port of Vigo was the most resilient during the COVID-19 year, with improving embarking traffic.
• Two types of ports have been identified: “export gateways” and “balanced gateways”.
• The vehicle traffic in the Iberian Peninsula has seasonality with peak- and low- season months.
• The COVID-19 pandemic changed the seasonality pattern of the vehicle traffic from April to June.
• Car-carrier traffic showed resilience; its activity decreased during some months, but it was not totally stopped.

Further studies can be addressed to this topic, e.g., the addition of a new year of study regarding 2021 to seek new effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maritime traffic. Further interesting studies could address the origin and destination of the vehicle movements in each port, allowing the stakeholders to know the flow of the car industry and how the ports share trade with other regions. Another interesting future study is to enlarge this research with other ports areas, i.e., vehicle trade between North and South of Europe, Mediterranean ports or between Northern Africa and European ports.