General Information
The Port of Marseille Authority is a financially independent public Government establishment. It develops, maintains, manages and promotes the port installations along the 70 kilometers of coastline and the Rhône river and can be divided in the Eastern Harbors (Marseille) and Western Harbours Fos-Lavera. Marseille is the 1st port of France and the Mediterranean; is ranked as 4th European port for total throughput and 3rd largest port in the world for oil traffic.
Traffic 2005
The port of Marseilles-Fos increased cargo throughput to 96.6 million tonnes
last year, up 2.7% on 2004.The increase was largely due to a 2.5 MT rise
in oil volumes . Container traffic, which grew 9% in teu terms in 2004,
dipped by 0.9%. This compared with average growth of 11% among rival ports
in northern Europe and 6% for competitors in the south. The Port of Marseilles
Authority (PMA) stressed that there were several encouraging signs including
retained customer confidence, the launch of three new container services
and rising trade with China, which overtook Algeria as the port’s main
source of container business.
Major global port
Work continued on GDF 2, a second methane terminal for Gaz de France that
should push the port’s total cargo volumes to more than 100 MT in 2008
when it comes on stream. Construction of the Fos 2XL container terminal
is set to start later this year, when final agreements are to be signed
with the French government and stevedoring partners Port Synergy and MSC.
Development of the Fos Distriport multi-modal logistics park continued
with completion of an extra 63,000 square meters of warehousing. Meanwhile
planning permission was granted for a further 163,000 sq m to be built
during 2006. Negotiations were also concluded for several installations
in the Fos industrial zone, notably a clinker crushing plant – which will
generate traffic of 1 MT a year on completion – and projects related to
the construction materials sector. In 2006 the PMA, working in partnership
with the Suez utilities company, expects to clinch investment decisions
for industrial developments with an annual potential 1.5 MT of traffic.
They also expect to reserve 100 hectares in the zone for two major logistics
projects that could generate annual container traffic of 80,000 teu.
http://www.marseille-port.fr