Marseilles Fos saw cargo volumes rise 3% last year, despite strikes repeatedly bringing handling to a halt.
Chairman calls for an end to hostility to 'build the port of tomorrow'
Marseilles Fos saw cargo volumes rise 3% last year, despite strikes repeatedly bringing handling to a halt.
Volumes at the port hit 86 million tonnes in 2010, driven by increases in container and dry bulk volumes, and it pointed out that this growth was ahead of other French ports, which only averaged 1% increases.
Marseilles Fos volumes were up 8% between January and June, but strike action against French government pension and privatisation reforms impacted performance in the second half. Container traffic grew 9% to 953,435 teu, with the strikes costing the port an estimated 107,000teu in diverted traffic.
But the increase was still better than the Southern Europe average of 7.7%. Ro-ro traffic brought in 4.3 million tonnes, up 6% on 2009,after the launch of the port’s first service with Turkey, while trade with Tunisia reached a 10-year high of 1.3 million tonnes.
Arrangements to transfer port personnel and equipment to private management under French port reforms must be completed by a government deadline of April this year. In total, 450 people – out of 1,500 currently employed by the port authority – will be transferred to various companies that are to run future operations.
Supervisory Board Chairman Patrick Daher said this was a priority, in order to restore the port’s reliability.
He said: “It’s time to reunite all parties in building the port of tomorrow. I have the firm conviction that Marseilles Fos must aspire to the level of major city-ports in the mould of Singapore, Hamburg or Shanghai.” The port’s annual turnover jumped 2.3% to €175 million (US$236m), despite losses of €4m caused by the strikes. Infrastructure investment fell from €130 million in 2009 to €74 million, as the port completed its work on the Fos 2XL container development, which will include two new privately operated terminals.