TCL celebrated yesterday 500,000 TEU handled in 2011, an absolute record, in Leixões as well as in national container terminals.
The ceremony, intentionally simple, organized by TCL and APDL, was attended by the presidents of IPTM, of the council of Matosinhos and of the Associação Empresarial de Portugal among many other guests, members of the port community of Leixões as well as other communities, as well.
Lopo Feijó, TCL’s chairman, stood out the fact that in just four years the movement at the Leixões Container Terminal went from 400,000 to 500,000 TEU.
For that, there were four deciding factors: the preponderance of the export increase (with an accumulated growth  of 25% in the current year), the transshipment activity growth – which represents about 5% of TCL’s total turnover, but is especially worth as demonstration of the market’s confidence in the port conditions: the hinterland’s increase, with the entrance in the Spain market getting each time more consistent, especially in Galicia; and the productivity, at the level of the best equivalent ports in Europe.
TCL’s chairman ended with a few words of pride and esteem to the port personnel in Leixões, as well as for its representative union which, as he referred, has also been a fundamental partner in order to reach the achieved results.