The Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) participated in the eMobility Expo World Congress – MOW 2026, the largest European professional event dedicated to sustainable, connected, autonomous, and electrified mobility, which took place on March 10 and 11 at the Málaga Fair and Congress Palace (Fycma). The event gathered more than 375 international speakers, 180 stakeholders, and over 200 exhibiting companies to analyze the trends and technologies transforming transport and mobility in sectors such as maritime-port, air, rail, and logistics.
The event organized its content into a series of vertical forums covering the entire value chain of sustainable mobility, from the Automotive Forum and the Hydrogen Forum to the Integrated Transport Systems Forum, the Urban & Micro Mobility Forum, the Logistics Forum, and the Maritime Transport Forum, among others focusing on energy, batteries, rail, air mobility, and professional talent. It was precisely in the Maritime Transport Forum where the APBA had its most notable participation through a roundtable titled 'Ports, the power of data: what does the future hold for us?'
In this session, Salvador León, Head of the Digital Transformation and Innovation Division of the APBA's Technological Development Area, intervened alongside Mafran Martínez, Head of the Technology and Information Systems Department of the Port Authority of Huelva; Fernando Arjona, Head of Information Technologies and Innovation at the Port Authority of Málaga; and Ignacio Palomino, Head of the Information and Communications Systems, New Technologies, and Innovation Department of the Port Authority of the Bay of Cádiz. The debate was moderated by Juan Manuel Martínez, President of the Spanish Transport Association (AET).
The roundtable addressed how ports are transitioning towards advanced digital ecosystems where data becomes the main driver of efficiency, sustainability, and logistical coordination. Participants analyzed how real-time data capture and integration allows for optimizing operational flows, anticipating incidents, reducing emissions, and improving decision-making, supported by technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, and data spaces.
Salvador León presented the strategy of the Port of Algeciras regarding digital transformation, a process that the APBA frames within the concept of 'Port of the Last Generation.' This model is based on an ecosystem of digital tools that provide real-time visibility over port operations and predictive and prescriptive capabilities aimed at operational excellence. León presented the data integration with the Port of Tanger Med as a key example of how sharing information between two port infrastructures separated by the Strait of Gibraltar enables more precise operational planning and coordination of ship and cargo flows that transit between both shores.
The APBA representative also mentioned the Port Collaborative Decision-Making (PortCDM) tool, a collaborative decision-making system that aggregates and shares information among the different actors involved in port operations — port authority, terminals, shipping companies, pilots, tugboats, freight forwarders — to improve coordination and reduce waiting times and inefficiencies. According to León, this tool has been a decisive factor in the designation of the Port of Algeciras as one of the seven global hubs of the Gemini shipping alliance, formed by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. The APBA's ability to act as an operational orchestrator of the port ecosystem and as a value generator from intelligent data management was an element valued by shipping companies when selecting the ports that would be part of the alliance structure.
León also emphasized the importance of maintaining a 'technologically agnostic' approach in the digital strategy of the Port of Algeciras, open to exploring new solutions as long as they align with the 'platform of platforms' model adopted by the APBA. This model is articulated around the Corporate Platform for System Integration (PCIS), which functions as an integration skeleton for various applications and business data that support port-logistics processes. The PCIS allows different digital tools operating in the port — from terminal management systems to ship tracking platforms and document management applications — to effectively and efficiently share information, avoiding the creation of data silos and ensuring that information flows transversely across all processes.
The joint participation of representatives from the port authorities of Algeciras, Huelva, Málaga, and Cádiz in the same roundtable provided a panoramic view of the different degrees of digital maturity in the Andalusian ports and the common challenges they face in adopting data technologies. The four ports share the need to move towards data-driven management models, although each finds itself in a different phase of the process and operates with varying traffic volumes and types of goods, which influences their priorities and technological investment strategies.
The eMobility Expo World Congress has established itself as one of the main European forums for debate on the future of mobility, with a focus that ranges from the electrification of road transport to the digitalization of maritime and port operations. The 2026 edition, held in Málaga, served as a showcase for the southern Spain ports to present to an international professional audience the advancements they are undertaking in digital transformation, an area where the Port of Algeciras positions itself as one of the Spanish port infrastructures with the highest degree of technological development.