The port reforms that were proposed in France a couple of years ago were not welcomed by the port sector and French port workers responded fiercely by taking strike actions that almost crippled the country. But by the time the reforms – the transfer of port workers and cargo handling equipment from government owned authorities to private operated companies – became reality the majority of the French port industry accepted these changes.
Since May 2011, the Port of Marseilles ‘transferred’ more than 410 port workers (28% of the total workforce) to privately owned terminal operators. Cargo handling equipment – both container and bulk – were handed over to the relevant companies as well.
This transfer has had a major impact on productivity in the port which is split in two basins – the Western basin (Fos port industrial area) caters for international traffic and is located around 70km away from the centre of Marseilles while the Marseilles basin (within the centre of Marseilles) is intended for handling European-Mediterranean traffic.
At Fos, the waiting period for ships was reduced to zero at the container terminals while container throughput averaged a total of 84,600 TEU a month reflecting a growth of 10% (an additional 7,600 TEU a month) compared to before the port reforms.
As a result the port is confident that it will pass the 1 million TEU this year, in fact, it is forecasting that it will hit a throughput of 1,073,000 TEU, thus breaking a new throughput record (the port achieved its highest container throughput of 1,003,000 TEU in 2007).
Although the port has identified an increasing trend of more containerised cargo going to South America, most of the containers are coming from the Far East, exports to North America and the Eastern Mediterranean and are all handled at Fos.
Here you will find the two new multi-user terminals – Portsynergy (a joint venture between CMA CGM and DP World) and Seayard (a joint venture between MSC and Maersk), with a combined surface area of 135 hectares, a 2.4km long quay with a depth of 16m alongside, and are capable of handling up to 5 vessels at any one time. The terminals are equipped with 4 Super Post Panamax container cranes, 6 Post Panamax cranes and 9 Panamax cranes and average 23 moves per hour per crane. Fos also offers straightforward and direct access to the sea without tide or locks making it an ideal position as the southern entrance to Europe.
The port has also signed a contract with international terminal operator and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) for the Fos 4XL project. The project scheduled to be completed in 2020 will provide the port with an additional 54 hectares container terminal and an annual container capacity of 1.5 million TEU. Although the year 2020 seems a long time away the port has assurance from HPH that if additional capacity is needed in the port it will move the completion date forward.
Hinterland connections
Geographically Marseilles is well located as a southern entry point into Europe and the port points out that it could not only be a strategic location for shipping lines that exercise the slow steaming strategy it also benefits from well connected rail and river connections.
Last year, both rail and river modes represented more than 16% of the pre- and post shipments of maritime containerised goods. This equates to a 1% increase, due to a rise in the number of containers transported on the inland waterways and compared to 2010 the port has seen an increase of 12% in this sector.
At more than 3 million tonnes, river traffic shows an increase of 13% in 2011 compared to the year before. During the first three months of 2012, while overall traffic decreased by 10%, traffic in miscellaneous goods grew by 36% with, in particular, an increase of 23% in the number of containers. The port expects that in 2012 it will break another record by exceeding the benchmark of 70,000 TEU – the previous record was 66,634 TEU in 2011.
In 2012, the port also signed a preliminary agreement concerning a high speed rail link with Greenmodal, Colas Rail, Luxemburg State Railways, Louise Dreyfus Shipowner and the Circle for Optimodality in Europe to provide a high speed rail link with shuttle trains from Luxemburg to the port. A new intermodal hub within the Marseilles basin is also on the cards.
Port information system
The port is operating AP+, an electronic cargo community system that connects more than 250 companies and over 1500 users in the port logistic chain and improves the competitiveness of all the stakeholders.
Through the automation of procedures and the elimination of inefficient processes 80% of the goods arriving in the port of Marseilles are released within 2 days after their arrival (sometimes sooner). All participants including shipping agents and handlers are provided with reliable information in real time. This means that 100% of the customs declarations for both Marseilles and Fos can be submitted and cleared in the system. In fact, the port is proud to announce that it is a paperless port! By using the system members have seen an 80% increase in productivity through the reduction in operating costs (document management, access to information, movements, etc.). The AP+ cargo community system, designed and maintained by Marseille Gyptis International (MGI), handles almost 1 million containers each year and more than 1 million EDI messages a month. MGI has also developed an Inland+ module for their AP+ system. Inland+ enables large-scale rail and barge operators, inland terminals and inland customs to optimise their physical and commercial operations related to goods and to facilitate their customs processing and to connect to Marseilles Port Authority.
Outlook
The port reforms in the country might have worked well for the terminal operators as this has resulted in some strange allocations of cargo handling equipment. One of these combinations is the Med Europe Terminal within the Marseilles Basin. The terminal has an annual capacity of 350k TEU, a 950m quay length, 4 Panamax container cranes (one is out of action) and 13 straddle carriers. The terminal has been operating at 50-55% capacity resulting in handling 175k TEU a year. Perhaps you can argue that a terminal operating 175k-200k a year might not need four container cranes or was better off to work with mobile harbour cranes simply because of the financial investment if this was a start-up business. But the port of Marseilles is making huge strides in their efforts. Since the reforms they have seen 5 shipping lines leaving the port following the disruptions, but they have now all returned and the port has welcomed an additional 6 container shipping or mixed ro-ro lines. Over the period May 2011 till September 2012 8 services calling at the port have also increased their service capacity from 20 to 50%. So the future looks bright for the port of Marseilles.