• Torrevieja’s salt industry loads 20 trailers every day that are destined for areas affected by storm Filomena.

The internal market for de-icing salt represents only a small part of the annual turnover of the Torrevieja salt flats, but the peninsular winter storms are always a welcome arrival for the activity of the New Leasing Company of Las Salinas (NCAST).

For the last few days, with the appearance of storm Filomena, the facility is working at full capacity as it loads up to 500 tons per day in the large tonnage trucks that have been queuing at the site entrance during the last week.

Many areas in Central and Northern Spain have already been affected by bad weather and forecasts indicate that even more ice and snow will be cover many main roads, at relatively low levels, for the coming days.

An average of twenty trucks a day are being loaded at the salt works facilities next to the N-332 that is all destined for de-icing. They come from the centre, north of the country and also from the interior, the southeast of Spain -Cuenca, Albacete, Burgos as well as Murcia and Andalusia-

As well as dealing with the current situation the vehicles are moving salt in anticipation of areas not running out of stock during the remainder of winter.

More than half of Torrevieja’s salt production is destined for the international market via maritime transport, in bulk, from the port of Torrevieja, normally heading for the northern European market. A large proportion is also shipped in containers from the port of Alicante bound for the United States. Most of it is used in road de-icing – it is valued for leaving less residue than other salts.