2.5 Economic and social impact

The Port is, without doubt, an important factor in the socio-economic development of the province of Huelva, with an outstanding contribution to employment and gross added value. To give continuity to the work that the Port Authority has been carrying out to ascertain the impact of port activity on its hinterland, a tender was issued in 2021 for technical assistance to prepare impact studies of the Huelva Port on a biennial basis. The measurement of the economic impact of the Huelva Port carried out in 2023 has as its object of study the year 2022, which can be considered as the year of final recovery after COVID-19, and in which a movement of tonnes was recorded that indicates a return to a phase of growth. All this has happened in spite of the difficulties caused by high energy prices and the increase in logistics and raw material costs for many of the companies related to the Huelva Port.

The results of this study showed that the activity of the Huelva Port constitutes the essential logistical support for the main economic sectors of the province.

The study applies a methodology based on the 2016 Input-Output Framework of the Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia, which estimates the total impacts on gross value added (GVA) and employment, broken down into direct, indirect and induced effects, as well as the contribution to the provincial and regional economy.

The Port is an important factor in the socioeconomic development of the province of Huelva, its contribution to employment and its gross added value being notable.

The port ecosystem included in the impact assessment is made up of 206 companies and entities, 79 of which form part of port industry, while 127 companies are involved in dependent industries.

All the impact studies can be consulted at the Huelva Port website.