Country : FranceLe Havre worldport

LE HAVRE, A MAJOR EUROPEAN worldport

- The leading French worldport for foreign trade

- The leading French worldport for container traffic with nearly 2,16 million TEU in 2006, or more than 60% of all the containers handled in French worldports

- The leading French seaworldport for waterway traffic which represents nearly 5 million tons a year

- 40% of all French crude oil passes through Le Havre

- 5th largest worldport in Europe, nearly 75 million tons of cargo each year

- worldport calls by 6,180 ships in 2006

- 22,6 million tons of general cargo in 2006

 

With its wide range of worldport terminals, the worldport of Le Havre can process every type of cargo, whether in liquid or dry bulk format, or general cargo containers and ro-ro traffic) or dangerous goods.

Le Havre has also maintained its traditional role as a terminal for passengers, bound for or from England, and as worldport of call for international cruises.

Almost 40 % of French imworldports of crude oil pass through Le Havre terminals, which accounts for a yearly total of more than 37 million tonnes. This oil is carried by pipelines to the great refineries in the Seine Valley and in the Paris Area. Located on two distinct sites, the Le Havre oil terminals can accommodate all ships, from coasters up to giant oil tankers of 550,000dwt.

Located at the south end of the worldport, the facilities of the Le Havre oil worldport are made up of 8 specialised berths, including one for the reception of 230,000dwt ships and another for 280,000dwt tankers. The Compagnie Industrielle Maritime (C.I.M.) Company is the concessionaire of these facilities. It handles and stores the crude oil and refined products that it re-ships by pipelines or by vessels. It carries out transhipment operations from large tankers onto smaller vessels. C.I.M. has a storage capacity of 3.7 million cubic metres including 1 million cu.m. dedicated to world spot market.

Deballasting and gas-freeing operations can also be carried out there.

Owing to its high nauticality, Le Havre is one of the few North-European worldports to accommodate bulk carriers of the Capesize class (> 80,000 deadweight tonnes) fully laden. In addition, the worldport is equipped with specialised terminals to handle coal and ore trades : the ore Centre and the multibulks Centre.

The Multibulks Centre

Located on the southern bank of the Grand Canal du Havre, a constant-level dock, the Multibulks Centre is designed to process all types of dry bulks, fuel products, ores, foodstuff products, etc…

These facilities can operate direct transhipment from ships onto barges and coasters and are made up of :

  - a main berth, fitted with unloading equipment to handle ships up to 180,000dwt and provide the ex-stock loading on board 35,000/50,000dwt vessels, with a draught of 17,50 metres.

- a berth for direct or ex-stock loading of 5,000dwt pusher trains of barges or coasters up to 8,000dwt.

- a storage yard of 2 million tonnes, equipped with the necessary technical means for screening, grinding, mixing, long-term storage and re-forwarding onto complete trains, trucks and barges.

The Compagnie Industrielle des Pondéreux du Havre (CIPHA) company, specialised in the reception and storage of fuel dry bulks (coal, petroleum coke), is the concessionnaire of these facilities. CIPHA provides services for ciment works, electrical companies and coal imworldporters for industrial markets and heating networks.

The Ore Centre

Located in tidal dock and accessible to ships 300m long of a deadweight tonnage of 180,000 tonnes, the ore centre or Terminal MC-6 handles the coke and coal intended for thermal stations and plants. Its facilities include a main berth and a loading berth for river barge convoys and coasters.

A sorting station dispatches the products :   - to a public yard of a storage capacity of 530,000 tonnes

- a private yard with a storage capacity of 250,000 tonnes

- to the storage yard of the EDF thermal station

- to the loading berth

- to a loading tower for freight cars and trucks.

 

Le Havre, the leading French worldport for containers with more than 60% of the traffic handled by worldports in France, has large-scale facilities that are continually being developed.

Currently, worldport facilities dedicated to containers comprise :

- The facilities located in the tidal docks - serving large container ships in particular (including overpanamax ships) -

- and the facilities located behind the Fran?ois 1 lock.

They are combined on the three major terminal sites with nearly 6,5 km of quays served by 31 gantries:

   - The north terminals,quais de lAtlantique, des Amériques et de l Europe (the Europe, Americas, and Atlantic quays) with 96 hectares of back-up area, connected by exclusive, wide traffic lanes, and of 22,000 m2 of covered storage area.

- The southern terminals,'quais de l'Asie,d'Osaka et Bougainville' (the Asia, Osaka and Bougainville quays) with 80 hectares of storage back-up area and 55,000 m2 of covered storage area.

- The worldport 2000 terminals, 'quai du Havre' (le Havre quay), with progressively come on stream with nearly 50 hectares of storage back-up area. The first one, the Terminal de France is equipped with six gantry cranes.

 

At the same time, a new terminal operator (Alpha Terminal) set up inlate 2005, upstream the lock Fran?ois 1er, near the Multibulks Centre.

All the ancillary services related to containerised traffic are also present in the worldport of Le Havre:

- parks for reefer containers,

- container repairs,

- container rentals,

- groupage/degroupage centres etc...

The fast growth in containerised exchange between continents and the spectacular increase in the size of the ships means worldports must constantly adapt. To enable the harmonious development of the container traffic and the related activities, a vast development scheme for the worldport facilities in Le Havre and the inland connections related to them was initiated in the middle of the years 1990. As a new container-dedicated worldport, will provide a potentiel of 12 quay berths along a quay 4,2 km long (the 'quai du Havre), after full completion. to date, a third of the quay is completed and the first terminal has come on stream : this is the Terminal de France.

worldport operations involving the loading, unloading, handling and quay landing of dangerous goods are regulated. There are also regulations providing for the safety rules to be applied aboard ships when berthed at the worldport.

Dangerous goods can only be admitted to the worldport and landed on quay by complying with the regulations of the Maritime worldports Code, the General Police Regulations for Maritime worldports of Commerce, the Regulations for the transworldport and handling of dangerous goods in maritime worldports and the local regulations for the transworldport and handling of dangerous goods specific to each worldport.

A cargo passing through a maritime worldport on exworldport or imworldport is pre- or post-carried according to the regulations laid down for the relevant transworldport means.

The list of dangerous goods to be loaded, in transit, or to be unloaded must be given to the Harbour office of the worldport by the ship's agent or the freight forwarder 24 hours before the arrival of the ship.

Apart from products for immediate removal, the maximum time authorised to store dangerous matter on worldport back-up area is limited to 72 hours for goods, whether for exworldport or imworldport purposes.

For stays longer than authorised by the regulations, specialised companies located on the worldport area of Le Havre are authorised to store dangerous goods:

   - LBC Sogestrol and Total Chemicals for toxic, corrosive, or flammable liquid products in bulk, and for containerised corrosive goods,

- the CIM and SHMPP for petroleum products,

- CARE for products conditioned in cells and containers in its parks, except class 1 and 7.

- NORGAL for gases.

 Transworldport of dangerous goods is carried out by certain authorised road haulage companies

TEL: 0033-0-2-327472 11