Tag: catalonia

The logistics platform B2B Logistic Busan Barcelona Hub has started operations. In fact, more than 55% of Spanish maritime imports from Korea enter through the Port of Barcelona and 55% of these are destined for Catalonia.

The company B2B Logistics Busan & Barcelona Hub was set up last October, with a 51% stake from the Port of Busan and 49% from the Port of Barcelona.
One year after the agreement between the Port of Barcelona and the Port of Busan to create the platform and facilitate trade and enhance the logistics of Korean companies from the ZAL Barcelona, the logistics area now has 9,129 square meters available for transit traffic.

The platform has important logistics partners in the international company FM Logistic, which with this operation enters the ZAL Barcelona, and the Korean company Taewoong Logistics, with its headquarters in Seoul and offices in Busan, which specializes in the movement of chemical products and which has not yet operated in Europe.

Trade relations between South Korea and Mediterranean Europe will be strengthened with the logistics hub that will receive the first Korean imports – a shipment of chemicals – in the coming days. In 2021, traffic between the Port of Barcelona and Korea will amount to 793,000 tonnes, a figure similar to that achieved in 2019, before the pandemic. Container traffic was around 60,000 TEUs, 6.3% more than the number of containers handled in 2019.
Catalonia currently has 140 companies (more than 1,300 workers) with a turnover of 426 million euros that together make up the hydrogen ecosystem in Catalonia.
On Monday 18 July, ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investmemn presented the first edition of the study of these characteristics that analyses the hydrogen sector in Catalonia.

Hydrogen, as the study states, can be classified into eight types, depending on the method of production. Green hydrogen, obtained thanks to the electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources such as hydraulic, wind, and solar energy, is the only climate-neutral variable.

In fact, the global turnover of green hydrogen will reach 16 million dollars in 2025, with a year-on-year growth of 56%. The potential of this resource to decarbonize the economy is driving global investment in this field, which will exceed 340,000 million dollars by 2030, favored by the fall in production costs, which will be 62% in 2030 compared to 2020.

During his speech at the presentation of the study, Castellanos stressed that “green hydrogen is strategic for Catalonia and a key element in achieving a sustainable, distributed and decentralized energy model”.

The Secretary for Business and Competitiveness added that “Catalonia has a unique concentration of factors that make it particularly suitable for the development of green hydrogens, such as unquestionable leadership in the chemical sector, a solid industrial base, and the technological and knowledge capacity to deploy this energy carrier”.

The Generalitat has launched the largest mobilisation of logistics land in history. It will expand the logistics park in Vilarodona (Tarragona) by adding 3,400 gross hectares. At the same time, a similar park will also be set up in Lleida, in the Torreblanca area.

This was confirmed by the Vice-President and Minister for Digital Policies and Territory, Jordi Puigneró, at the event “Transforming to grow. Catalonia’s logistical impetus”, in which he also highlighted that logistics accounts for 14.4% of the Catalan GDP, with more than 27,500 active companies in the sector and generating 130,000 direct jobs.

During the event, it was recalled that in the 90s, the Generalitat was already aware of the importance of the logistics sector, so it created the public company Cimalsa, which manages a wide network of logistics parks and plans the implementation of several intermodal stations to facilitate the transport of goods by rail.

In addition to the creation of logistics parks, through the approval of Urban Development Master Plans (PDU), Puigneró also explained that for the Generalitat, consolidating the Ports of Barcelona and Tarragona is a priority policy. In this context, he commented that the logistics land at the Tarragona docks will be increased by 20%.

According to data published by the real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, office take-up in Barcelona during the first quarter of 2022 increased by 6.5% compared to the same period last year, reaching a total of 92,000 square metres.

A total of 82 deals were signed, 18% more than during Q1 2021 and 24% more than the quarterly average for the whole of last year.

The 22@ district and the city centre were the main areas, with between 50% and 60% of demand going to these areas of the city, where prime rents remain at 27.25 euros per month per square metre. In terms of energy quality, the trend of previous years has continued, with 85% of demand prioritising buildings of type A and B+.

According to Javier Bernades, director of offices in Spain at Cushman & Wakefield, the increase in take-up “demonstrates the commitment of companies, across the board, to develop their working models around the office” and adds that “there is a progressive trend towards a return to the physical office after a period of uncertainty marked by the pandemic”.

Following the acquisition of the start-up Shotl by the Emirati group Swvl, the multinational will locate its new hub for artificial intelligence applied to urban mobility services in Sant Cugat. The company plans to invest around five million euros to train a team of 50 technology professionals by the end of this year.

Shotl is now a Swvl company! We have the common goal of building a more sustainable and accessible world. You want to know more? Follow us on Swvl!#swvlringsthebell #nasdaq #nasdaqlisted pic.twitter.com/O7EUUwlj8f

— Shotl (@rideshotl) April 11, 2022

In August, Swvl acquired the start-up Shotl, which specialises in an on-demand bus service for companies and public administrations. The start-up’s founders comment: “They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. Orders were down because of the pandemic crisis”, without disclosing the purchase price.

The multinational went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange and raised around 500 million to finance its growth.

With the transaction (formalised in November), Shotl will see its brand disappear, but its technology and team will be more alive than ever. With the opening of an artificial intelligence hub in Sant Cugat, the group will take advantage of local talent and attract foreign professionals.

The Japanese company AGC Pharma Chemicals will invest 90 million euros in the expansion of its factory in Malgrat de Mar (Barcelona). This project has the support of ACCIÓ, the agency for competitiveness of the Regional Ministry of Enterprise and Employment.

This enlargement will increase the factory’s production capacity by 30%, with a new 7,500 square metre centre and the creation of 100 jobs. In addition, these new facilities will have reactors of between 1.5 and 7.5 cubic metres to produce a greater volume of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Roger Torrent, Minister of Business and Employment, visited the AGC facilities and said that “key investments are being decided in this sector and projects like those of AGC help us to explain to the world that Catalonia has assets that make us very competitive, such as a very powerful research and health system and a strong business environment”.

For his part, Akihiro Kadokura, CEO of the company, explained that its new plant will be “more modern and technological”. The multinational is part of the Japanese group AGC Group, which was established in Catalonia in 2019 and currently has 330 workers.

The French company Schneider Electric, which specialises in technological solutions for the energy sector, is to open a technology centre in the 22@ district, where the firm already has its headquarters in Spain.

Josu Ugarte, president of Schneider in the Iberia region, recognises the potential of the city of Barcelona to attract digital talent, as well as the large ecosystem of star-ups and benchmark IT companies.

The opening of this new space will mean the hiring of more than 200 people during 2022, bringing the total number of employees to around 500. Its main objective will be to lead the company’s digital transformations, driving data analysis, work in the cloud and e-commerce.

Image source: Wallbox

Wallbox, the Spanish manufacturer of charging solutions for electric cars, has inaugurated this April its third charger factory in the world, which will be located in Barcelona. This will be the first of two that it will start up this year, along with the one in Arlington, Texas, which it plans to open in September.

The company has invested nine million euros in this new plant in Barcelona’s Zona Franca, which currently employs 203 people and produces at a rate of 1,200 chargers per day, although it plans to reach one million units per year and employ 520 people when operating at full capacity by 2025.

The inauguration event of the new plant was attended by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés; the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau; and the CEO of Iberdrola, Sánchez Galán, the company that helped develop this unicorn by being its first investor.

“Wallbox is one of our unicorns, one of our start-ups with the greatest international projection. A success that is due to its decisive commitment to talent and national capabilities. Spain is an attractive country for investment, we want many more Wallboxes”, declared Reyes Maroto, the Minister of Industry, during the event.

During the event, Enric Asunción, CEO and co-founder of Wallbox, reviewed the company’s trajectory, highlighting that “We are no longer a start-up, we have grown up”. The company was born in 2015, and in just seven years, it has grown from a single charger in 2015 to more than one million according to estimates for this year.

The Institut Català del Sòl, INCASÒL, will develop a strategic plan to generate 8,000 hectares of land for industrial and logistical uses, planned to take place between 2022 and 2025.

Faced with the great demand for areas of more than 10,000 square metres, Incasòl plans to expand its current 443,000 square metres of land. By 2025, the 8,000 hectares it seeks to include in the plan will be developed through different plans.

Among them, the urban master plans that it is promoting in Torreblanca-Quatre Pilans, in Lleida, with 1,280 hectares, will stand out. Other outstanding estates are Catalunya-Sud (already for sale), Tortosa and two more in the Logis Empordà area.

It also intends to include high-demand areas currently under study, comprising 600 hectares in the Gavà and Valls areas. It does not neglect other municipalities with less demand, but with a need for territorial rebalancing, such as Cardona, Olvan and Organyà.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the contracting of industrial and logistics land in Barcelona stood at 885,000 square metres in 2021, 129% more than the previous year. Given the scarcity of this type of land, it is good news that the intention to continue adding metres in the coming years is good news.

According to a statement from CBRE at the Trends 2022 event, in 2021, 70% of the hiring of technology companies in Spain took place in Barcelona. Xavier Güell, director of the consultancy firm in Barcelona, explained that the technology sector has become “the main sector in terms of recruitment” in the city.

The Catalan capital’s presence in the technology sector not only stands out at the national level, but also leads the European ranking of cities with the greatest exposure to the technology sector, with 48%, ahead of Amsterdam (37%), Dublin (31%), Bucharest (29%) and London (29%).

In recent years, Barcelona has experienced one of the highest growth rates in the technology sector, given that in 2017, it was the seventh European city in this same ranking and in 2021 it has reached the first position.

The consultancy firm highlights 22@ as one of the main reasons for the city’s consolidation as a pole of attraction for the technology sector. According to the report, it notes that the Torre Glòries area “is becoming an extension of the traditional City Business District (CBD), with 80% of its buildings having Grade A quality”.

Another key factor is rental growth. Although Barcelona is one of the cities where rent has increased the most in the last six years, the city is still very competitive in terms of office rent. CBRE expects the city to show significant increases in the coming years.

Another key element, as highlighted by the report, is the strong and sustained progression in recruitment since 2013. In 2015 and 2019, the city reached a record high of 400,000 m². Despite the sharp drop in 2020, in 2021, contracting in Barcelona grew by 90%.

Following the award of a plot of land to the firms Panattoni, which will locate a data processing, storage and distribution centre (DPC), and Impar Capital, which will develop a student residence. Parc de l’Alba, in Cerdanyola del Vallès, has become the largest data centre hub in Catalonia.

With an investment of 36.6 million euros, the two firms have acquired nearly 80,000 square metres of land, located in the Parc de la Ciència. As the Vice President for Digital Policies, Jordi Puigneró, announced during the MIPIM fair in Cannes (France), “Today we are showing the power of one of the areas on which Catalonia is focusing on the coming years. We want to be a digital nation, and today we have signed the contract for the largest Data Processing Centre in Catalonia, making Parc de l’Alba the most important Data Centre hub in the country”.

Panattoni and Impar Capital have jointly presented themselves to the tender called by INCASOL, but each will develop its own project independently, and foresee an investment of more than 150 million euros.

In the case of Panattoni, it has acquired a plot of 68,058.56 m² in which it plans to invest a total of 100 million euros in the construction of the largest data processing centre in Catalonia. This centre will attract major opportunities for industrial and logistics projects from all over Europe.

Impar Capital has acquired a plot of 11,514.74 m² in which it plans to invest 5.93 million euros in the construction of a student residence with 375 beds.

Barcelona Catalonia represents the alliance between the Generalitat de Catalunya, through INCASÒL, the Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, united with the aim of promoting inclusive, sustainable and cohesive development models.

Under the slogan Barcelona Catalonia. Open for Business! This is the 15th year that we are attending MIPIM, the world’s leading real estate fair, in Cannes (France), in search of potential foreign investors who want to bring their projects to the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.

Among the projects presented, we highlight our Barcelona Green Deal strategy, in which we collect the priority lines of economic promotion aligned with the 2030 agenda, towards a more competitive, sustainable and equitable city, adapted to challenges such as the ecological and digital transition.

On the other hand, the Parc de l’Alba project, after the latest award of one of its plots for 36.6 million euros, will become the largest Data Center in Catalonia.

Finally, we highlight the “Illa A Business Park, Viladecans” project, the new 26,357 m² Business Center in Viladecans, which combines office complexes with common green spaces, maintaining the continuity of the landscape through architecture.

Our big conference of this edition of MIPIM was “New regeneration for business! Metropolitan opportunities for global companies” in which we discussed how urban regeneration factors, with a mix of uses, the application of sustainability and digitalization, are the best platform for the regeneration of the economy.

It is also worth highlighting the presentation “Catalonia, a land of business Opportunities” and laMercedes project, the first eco-district in Barcelona, finalist in the MIPIM Awards.

In this video, we summarise everything that this great fair has meant and the effect of our presence to promote the metropolitan area of Barcelona:

• 250 square metres of exhibition space
• Six presentations at the stand
• 900 visits to the Barcelona Catalonia stand
• 230 attendees at our promotional events
• Two conferences within the official programme of MIPIM
• The Barcelona Catalonia brand has reached 8,000 visitors to MIPIM

By 2030, the Barcelona Port Authority will invest 110 million euros in the electrification plan for the Adossat quay, the Costa quay, the Prat quay and the Sant Bertran dock.

This action will enable a 38% reduction in nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions during the stay of ships in the port, which currently represent 0.7% of all emissions generated in Catalonia.

When ships dock in port, despite switching off the engines they use to move around the sea, they need to activate others to supply power to the stationary vessel. With the electrification of the docks, the Port of Barcelona will avoid this burning of fuel and thus reduce the environmental impact of the infrastructure.

Another fundamental element in the electrification plan for the Port of Barcelona docks is the construction of a new electricity substation on the Ronda Litoral ring road by the electricity grid, with a capacity of 220 kV.

The Startup Capital support programme of Acció (Agency for the Competitiveness of Enterprise) has helped to generate up to 500 new jobs. The 86 start-ups that have accessed this support have raised more than 33.5 million euros in private investment and 39.5 million euros from public bodies in the last 4 years.

The Startup Capital line is a direct aid for emerging technology startups, which need funding to carry out the initial phases of the business, develop their product or service and validate the business model to reach the market. Acció grants up to 75,000 euros per startup, covering the risk of their first months of life.

The main areas in which the 86 companies that have benefited so far are health (32.1%), digitalisation (30.4%), environment (15.2%), manufacturing (11.6%), food (6.3%) and mobility (4.5%).

Barcelona City Council has allocated more resources to acquiring assets in 2021 than ever before. With a total of 108.5 million euros, 4.5 million euros more than the initial budget, the city council has become one of the main investment agents in the city in terms of operations, with 78 sales: 55 commercial premises, 13 estates and 13 single buildings with a total of 369 homes.

With all these operations, the city council has pursued a triple aim: the recovery, for the public sphere, of real estate assets of special interest and cultural, historical or social relevance; economic reactivation; and the increase in the public housing stock.

With an investment of 50 million, the company BWT Ibérica, belonging to the Austrian group BWT specialised in water optimisation solutions, will expand its facilities in Sant Cugat del Vallès to create its new distribution centre in Southern Europe.

The Institut Català del Sòl (INCASÒL), from whom the company has purchased the land, has emphasised that the logistics location close to the port of Barcelona responds to the company’s future business development and expansion strategy.

This new logistics hub, covering almost 40,000 square metres, will create 150 jobs. And it will leave the Can San Joan sector practically sold out, with only one plot remaining for sale.

Under the slogan Barcelona Catalonia. Open for Business! the Generalitat of Catalunya, through the Catalan Land Institute, INCASÒL, Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, will participate in the MIPIM 2022 fair, the world’s leading real estate fair, where it will offer investors the main projects under development in Barcelona and Catalonia.

The event will be held from 15 to 18 March in Cannes (France), and will host the most important stakeholders in the international real estate sector. More than 3,800 companies from 100 different countries will be exhibiting in a space of more than 22,000 m², with 480 conferences and lectures attended by a mainly investor audience (24%), along with CEOs and senior C-level professionals (15%).

Barcelona Catalonia will promote the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and Catalonia as a place in which to progress, innovate, produce and face new challenges for the future. An area in which to grow, create jobs and opportunities and attract talent. To achieve this objective, the Catalan delegation will have a 250 m2 stand and the participation of 30 public and private partners. 

The aim of Barcelona Catalonia. Open for Business! is to offer investors a presentation of the main projects being developed in Barcelona and Catalonia in 9 areas, among which the following stand out:

• Barcelona Centre
• 22@ Barcelona
• Barcelona Sagrera, new urban center.
• Cerdanyola del Vallès – Parc de l’Alba/Barcelona Synchrotron Park
• L’Hospitalet de Llobregat – Finestrelles Nord
• Gavà – Pla de Ponent

9 areas with great potential for investment in logistics spaces, office and residential buildings, innovation and research centres or land for economic, commercial and hotel activities, among others. 

Barcelona Catalonia’s agenda for MIPIM 2022 includes various events, including the conferences “New regeneration for business!” and “Invest in Barcelona. The Green Deal Factor”, and the presentations “Barcelona, the Green Deal”, “Parc de l’Alba, a whole new district of opportunities”, “Catalonia, a land of business Opportunities” and “Illa A Business Park, Viladecans”. In addition, there will be a daily networking session through the “Catalan Vermut time”.

Are you interested in investing in Barcelona Catalonia? If you are attending MIPIM 2022, 15-18 March, contact us to meet us there.

The latest European Cities and Regions of the Future 2022/23 report, published by the Financial Times group’s fDi Magazine, has ranked Barcelona as the best European city for its investor promotion strategy, ahead of Milan and Berlin.

Top 10 european cities of the future  | fDi Magazine

The document highlights, among other aspects, Barcelona City Council’s Barcelona Green Deal plan, “An economic plan in line with the UN’s 2030 agenda based on sustainability, equity and competitiveness, the city is moving towards achieving a circular economy. This includes attracting sustainable food and transport companies, accelerating the city’s energy transition and boosting the blue economy, which promotes the sustainability of ocean resources,” cites fDi Magazine.

The magazine also mentions the Barcelona International Welcome Desk initiative, a pioneering service in Spain that facilitates the arrival and establishment of investors, researchers and international talent.

The jury, made up of several experts in promotion, recognized the promotional strategy of the Barcelona metropolitan area, which has attracted international hubs such as Pepsico and Microsoft, the establishment of technology companies that have opened doors to the European market from Barcelona, such as Singapore Transformative Digital Customer Experience (TDCX), and the opening of logistics bases, such as Decathlon.

Top 10 European regions of the future | fDi Magazine

The publication also values the presence in Catalonia of higher education institutions that act “as magnets for high value-added investment” and the fact that “international technology giants, SMEs and highly specialized start-ups are attracting the best talent from around the world to the region”.

Finally, the report mentions Acció‘s foreign investment attraction strategy, focused on attracting new business projects to Catalonia in the field of Industry 4.0 and manufacturing. 

The fDi Awards will be presented on 15 March at 11:30 am, during MIPIM 2022 in Cannes, France. A ceremony in which Barcelona will be recognized and awarded as a benchmark in attracting and attracting investment.

The Mobile World Congress opens its doors and GSMA, the organizer of the MWC, expects between 40,000 and 60,000 attendees at this edition from February 28 to March 3, more than double that of the previous edition. It also expects the fair to generate an impact of €240 million in the Barcelona metropolitan area.

The congress occupies seven of the eight pavilions of the Fira de Gran Via exhibition center in Barcelona, and has welcomed more than 1,500 exhibitors and attendees from 120 countries. 

Mobile broke its own record by gathering 109,000 people in 2019, however, the pandemic prevented it from being held in 2020, and in 2021 it had to delay its schedule to the end of June, where it gathered 20,000 in-person attendees.

In 2019, the MWC generated 473 million euros and 14,000 temporary jobs, and expects to generate 240 million and up to 7,000 jobs in this edition. Since the arrival of this fair in Barcelona, it has left about 5,300 million euros in the Catalan capital.

MWC 2019 | LIBRE MERCADO

The top ten exhibiting companies at this edition are Samsung, Huawei, Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom, Google, Nokia, Oppo, Qualcomm, SK Telecom and ZTE, as well as technology giants such as Xiaomi, Meta, China Telecom and AT&T, among others. However, this year’s MWC will not be attended by Lenovo or Sony.

The Barcelona City Council has launched the promotional campaign Barcelona with you, with the aim of attracting talent, investment and strengthening the Barcelona Brand to coincide with the Mobile World Congress 2022.