For months, the American giant multiplied its logistics network with the pandemic and has found that consumption did not advance at the same rate as its expansion. The firm stopped projects around the world and the decision already hits its plans in Spain. In the Iberian Peninsula, it suspended at least four logistics centers that it planned to open over the next few months. And they could fall more, since the demand is far from picking up.
Sources from the real estate sector explain to elEconomista.es that the technology company has decided to cancel the construction of the warehouses it had already designed in Reus (Tarragona), Girona, Vitoria and Seville. In total: around 150,000 square meters of land that the company planned to build in Spain and that will not finally see the light of day due to the oversupply and the drop in demand.
The largest of the four buildings is the one that was projected in the town of Reus, with a surface area of up to 80,000 square metres, garage included. It was the most important property that was on the table. The polygons that had to be carried out in the town of Oiartzun (Vitoria) and the province of Seville totaled about 30,000 square meters each. Meanwhile, the one in the Girona municipality of Celrà was going to have around 12,000 square meters.
Amazon follows a pattern: canceling delivery centers in secondary cities
Other voices add that Amazon has followed a pattern when it comes to canceling delivery centers. The American firm decided to cut the projects that were located in secondary Spanish towns and keep those in the big capitals, where the demand would resist better. In addition, all the withdrawals are facilities that were not yet signed or were in a very embryonic phase, with exit clauses still to be activated. For this reason, other infrastructures could still be added to the list of casualties.
The organization does maintain logistics centers such as the one it is erecting in Figueres (Girona), although it progresses with delays over the initially planned deadlines,
Contacted by this means, the company recalls that none of the mentioned ships has been officially confirmed. And he adds: “We have invested heavily in Spain in recent years; in 2021 alone we opened more than 20 centers in Spain, including logistics centers in Castilla La Mancha and Murcia; stations in Catalonia, Madrid, Castilla y León, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and Aragon; and our first center in Europe for same-day deliveries in Madrid”.
According to official figures, Amazon has around thirty logistics centers -not counting urban points- in the country, with Catalonia (7), Madrid (6) and Andalusia (5) being the points with the highest capillarity.
a global problem
The Spanish case is not singular nor does it affect only Amazon. In fact, the logistics sector in general has detected the existence of an oversupply in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula and the big players in the sector are more restrained when it comes to signing new operations than they were last year. Many made the decision to only develop already pre-leased facilities and discard the speculative projects that they had undertaken in previous semesters.
The giant suspended projects around the world. “We have too much space right now compared to our demand patterns,” CFO Brian Olsavsky admitted last April. For this reason, the company put the signing of new projects on hold while waiting for demand, which is no longer growing at the level expected during the coronavirus, to reach the supply levels that the company has.
While in the United States it still registers revenue growth with its distribution business, it suffered a 6% drop in its international sales in the first quarter. In Europe, the impossible comparison with the data of the pandemic and the harsh confinements are added to the problems in the supply chain and the impact of the invasion of Ukraine.
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