The remote roads of Teruel are filled with trucks loaded to the top of clay. The reason: Ukraine

When in de February 2022 The Kremlin troops advanced on Ukraine a complex domino effect was activated that ended up letting himself be felt far beyond the battlefield. The war altered global geopolitics, the Financial systemthe agriculturethe energyhe air transportthe world market … and also (in a turn as unexpected as surprising) The national roads of the Maestrazgo and Bajo Aragón regions, in the province of Teruel.

The pumps and bullets fly about 3,000 kilometers away, away from Aragon, but its effect is evident on Turolenses roads. There the war has unleashed an intense heavy traffic that is saturating the roads

“Feeling of insecurity”. Aguaviva, more of Las Matas, Castellote, breast, mills and the Parras de Castellote are six municipalities of Teruel that in April They joined forcesnext to the town of Cuevas de Cañart, to send A joint letter to the Government of Aragon and the Provincial Council. In it basically they alerted a problem that worries the residents of the seven territories: in just a few years their roads have been filled with hundreds of trucks, which has generated concern for the security or the state of infrastructure.

Accidents. The municipalities do not speak only of risks or abstract threats. His letter was written weeks after a truck collided Against a bus in Aguaviva and just two months after Another trailer I would have overturned after leaving the road, an incident that It was not new either. The result, as the mayor of Aguaviva recognized in April to the newspaper Heraldis that neighbors live with “a very large sense of insecurity.” That without counting on The deterioration which causes heavy traffic on tracks and roads that are not prepared for trucks.

From asphalt to regional policy. The issue did not take to transcend the municipalities of the regions of Bajo Aragón and Maestrazgo to make the leap to regional policy. Teruel exists took the issue to the courts of Aragon, which A few weeks ago He claimed the regional government to seek a solution for Vials A-225 and A-226. In the background, the same problem: the transfer of hundreds of trucks, which according to some calculations overcome the 400 daily In Aguaviva, more than respectable figure if one takes into account that some live some 500 people.

A few days ago the Diputación even went further and promised to invest 150,000 euros In the improvement of one of the roads affected by the trucks, the road that goes from the sale of La Pintada to Castellote by Molinos. A priori, money will be used to improve soft, correct the deformations caused by the daily transfer of trucks and renew the signaling.

And why so many trucks? The key is what they transport. In their trailers they carry clay, raw material extracted from the MINES OF THE AREA For the ceramic industry and Castellón tile. That was for example the cargo of the truck that ended up colliding in Aguaviva against a bus or the one that overturned end of February. According to Ascer data (The employer of the sector nationwide) The ceramic industry represents around 22.2% of the industrial GDP of the Valencian Community and more than 32.2% of the total of Castellón’s GDP.

As They point from The regionclay -loaded trucks leave Teruel and advance Morella, leaving an intense flow of vehicles that in some locations reaches several hundred daily. Recently the mayor of Castellote explained to The confidential That in the school where he works they have to keep the windows closed by the intense transfer of trucks that pass to about 300 meters from the center. “If I open them, I don’t hear the creatures,” he says.

And what does it have to do with the Ukraine War? Simple. Ukraine is a huge supplier of the clay that is used in the manufacture of tiles. At the beginning of the war it was calculated that around the 70% of the raw material that imported the Spanish ceramic sector arrived from Donetsk, in the Donbás region. In February 2022 Ascer recognized his “worry” And the truth is that the sector has not taken to look for alternatives, including neighboring Mines de Aragón.

In October 2022 Aragon News already pointed out that the clay mining of the region were seeing how their activity shot. If in 2020 the quarries of Teruel had produced a million tons, two years later it was expected that this volume exceeds the five million. And not just that. The increase in activity was accompanied by multiple studies to activate farms.

The earthquake. Since 2022 the trend does not seem to have stopped. While Ukraine is still shaken by bombs and drone attacks, Teruel has seen how her clay mining was sued. The data of Aragon News are eloquent again: production has shot, with dozens and tens of permissions for farms. Joaquín Moreno, councilor of Utrillas and deputy of Teruel exists, calculates that with the outbreak of the Ukraine War the number of exploits and investigation licenses has been quintupled.

Just a year ago Portsur de Castellón received The first ship With clay of Ukraine from the outbreak of the war, a cargo of 52,000 tons for the company Vesco Clays Spain. That has not prevented, however, that the peoples of Bajo Aragón and Maestranza warn of how they are affecting the changes in the sector to their roads. It is the (another) face B of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Images | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (Flickr) and Manel Zaera (Flickr)

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