Port accessA delegation from ALIA, the Logistics Cluster of Aragon, has visited the Port of Bilbao and discussed opportunities for improving connections with Aragon
Bilbao, 29 May 2025. The Port of Bilbao has today welcomed a delegation from ALIA, the Logistics Cluster of Aragon. The technical nature of the visit included knowledge pooling, the strengthening of logistics links between the two regions and the promotion of initiatives linked to sustainability and the use of hydrogen as a clean energy vector.
The visit began with an institutional reception by Andima Ormaetxe, Director of Operations, Commerce, Logistics and Strategy of the Port Authority. This was followed by a series of presentations by companies operating in the port, namely Consignaciones Toro y Betolaza, CSP Iberian Bilbao Terminal, Grupo Bergé and Servicio Logísticos Portuiarios-SLP, who explained their operational capabilities and outlined the latest developments in their services. After the briefing, the participants were given a guided tour of the port facilities by boat.
“The Port of Bilbao is a strategic option for international freight traffic, and from Aragon we want to strengthen ties that will enable us to offer new regular rail services from Zaragoza”, said Ángel Gil, Director of ALIA, who underlined the importance of diversifying Aragon’s port departures to the north “to guarantee greater resilience, safety and business competitiveness”.
For his part, Andima Ormaetxe, Director of Operations, Commerce, Logistics and Strategy of the Port Authority, expressed his and the port companies’ “gratitude for the visit of the companies from Aragon. In addition to presenting our transport services, we consider this to be an excellent opportunity for our visitors to get to know the people behind the Port of Bilbao and our way of doing things. We firmly believe that the Port of Bilbao and companies from Aragon have a wide scope for collaboration to enable foreign trade operations with more sustainable and resilient solutions. In this respect, we are contributing to this objective by further developing intermodality, investing in the electrification of port terminals and reducing and measuring our carbon footprint”.
One of the highlights of the day was the shared interest in projects linked to green hydrogen. The visit of the delegation from ALIA was organised as part of the Hy4AR Project (‘Study of the current and potential demand for hydrogen in Aragon’), subsidised by the Aragon Development Institute, which aims to define where and for what purpose Aragon will need hydrogen, and to detect which applications in the hydrogen value chain will be in demand, with a particular focus on the dual industry and logistics, aeronautics and aerospace.
For its part, the Port of Bilbao has positioned itself as a strategic hub for future hydrogen production and storage and as a distribution network. This is largely attributable to the ecosystem around the port and to its logistical capacity. The delegation from Aragon also showed interest in the facilities being adapted by the Port Authority to streamline the roll-out of alternative energies, and in the developments underway in the Basque Hydrogen Corridor.
ALIA has visited the Port of Bilbao in a year in which it will be celebrating its 15th anniversary, and as part of a series of actions geared towards strengthening Aragon’s connections with the main ports of Spain and promoting intermodality and public-private collaboration as the cornerstones of logistical development in the region.
