The history of Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife It is the very history of the island, since The Castilian conquerors arrived by sea and navigation was the only way of contact with the rest of the Canary Islands and the world from that moment and until the arrival of air transport. It is very difficult to interpret the past and present of Tenerife and its own capital if the existence of an important port in which multiple commercial activities coexist, in some cases very little known to a large sector of the citizenry, is not taken into account.
The historical choice of its location was already determined by the natural protection offered by its anchorage thanks to the Anaga mountain range, but the different expansion projects carried out by military and civil engineers in its more than five centuries of existence have transformed the facility, making it in a competitive port, generator of wealth, work and business.
An example of the strategic situation that our Port boasts is the fact that the ships that were traveling to America, and even to Africa and the Pacific, already arrived to refuel with water and fresh food. Aboard them arrived historical figures of the stature of Jean Charles Borda, the first to calculate the exact height of Teide; Humboldt, considered the father of Modern Universal Geography; or Sabino Berthelot, author of the Natural History of the Canary Islands. Renowned sailors such as Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook and William Bligh, captain of the Bounty, also made landfall.
Situated in a strategic enclave between Europe, Africa and America, works to improve the economy of the Canary Islands. All this under the firm commitment to coexistence with the city, collaborating in the transfer of areas that enable contact between citizens and their Port, mainly for leisure activities. The Port of Santa Cruz runs along the coast of the capital occupying more than ten kilometers in length. This configuration is not the result of a whim, since the very topography of this part of the coastline – with depths that reach up to 140 meters just 800 meters from the coast – have forced the Port to be extended lengthwise, making it practically impossible to do so widthwise. .
Said condition means that the docks that give it shape are quite narrow, very close to the coastline, with which this can basically affect noise to the citizens closest to the Port. For this reason, making residential and port use compatible is one of the priority objectives of the management of its current president, Carlos González, with initiatives such as the recent approval of a regulation to limit atmospheric pollution in its facilities, which is added to others already implemented, such as putting the connection to the electrical network at the service of passenger ships and oil platforms, which allows these units to turn off their auxiliary engines at night, reducing noise and gases into the atmosphere.
Also the current implementation of the Valleseco coastline management projectwith the collaboration of Canary Islands Government, Council of Tenerife Y capital city hallis an example of the clear vocation to cede to the city the feasible spaces for the contact of the citizen with its port.
In global figures, the Port of Tenerife occupies an area of 217.5 hectares in sheltered waters and docks, reaching 8,689 the total area occupied by non-sheltered waters but under port jurisdiction, known as Zone II. In 8.7 hectares of this Zone II and protected by the Anaga mountain range, you will find the best anchorage in the Middle Atlantic, a rating earned based on its operability, safety and reliability practically all year round.
Best anchorage in the Atlantic
And it is that an average of 700 ships call at this location annually, either to spend a few hours and stock up mainly on fuel, or to spend a long season or long stay. It is also an ideal enclave for inspection and repair work afloat, an activity that the Port Authority wants to promote to diversify the economic activity of the Port, such as the upcoming installation of a floating dock for ship repair
Due to its insularity, Tenerife does not have the option of resorting to means of supply by land, and the generally prohibitive cost of freight traffic by air means that more than 90 percent of the goods necessary for our economy.
In fact, without the imports that are recorded via the port, and according to the latest studies carried out for this purpose, there would be a shortage of motor vehicles and electrical and electronic equipment, this without taking into account the shortage of food products themselves.
But the capital’s port, thanks to its strategic enclave as a tricontinental platform, also serves international merchandise traffic, with connections to African, American and European ports thanks to the shipping lines that renowned groups such as Maersk and Grimaldi Lines have set up on a scale in our Port as a point of distribution of goods. Recent data on transshipment traffic this year and work meetings held for this purpose indicate that this type of international connection has the potential to go further in our Port. Focusing on the case of Grimaldi Lines, the 120,321 tons moved in transshipment traffic by its ships in the Port of Tenerife in 2019 almost tripled in 2021, reaching 321,532. From January to May, they show a movement of more than 98,000 tons, which indicates an optimal growth rate.
In 2019, the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife registered a movement of 2.5 million passengers, the last year of average figures before the covid was affected, of which 1.6 million corresponded to inter-island traffic and 739,000 to cruise passengers.
And it is also through it that an important part of tourists enter the capital and other island enclaves, thus acting ours as a focus more for the generation of island business than for itself. As data, it is enough to indicate that the one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife had a turnover of 36.8 million euros in 2021 while, according to the latest studies carried out for this purpose, the Puerto chicharrero manages to directly generate a gross added value, that is, the total value generated by the services provided therein, in excess of 300 million euros per year. The Port of Tenerife thus multiplies the generation of wealth in our land.
A port of general interest
The capital is a port of general interest managed by the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one of the 28 members of the state port system. The Tenerife Port Authority also manages the port facilities of Los Cristianos, San Sebastián de La Gomera, La Estaca, Santa Cruz de La Palma and the Granadilla dock, administratively integrated into the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is the national port authority with the largest number of dependent facilities.
