Financing woes yet to bite French ports

Asked if it is difficult to secure finance to support major projects at the moment,

Chantal Helman, the port’s strategy director, cites the example that Marseilles Fos was granted ¢7.5m ($10m) earlier this year by the French government to help kick-start essential work on the sea wall and on the internal rail network.

In all, ¢4.5m ($6m) has been allocated to the ¢30m ($40m) sea wall renovation project, while the rest will be spent upgrading and expanding rail capacity at Fos in readiness for Fos 2XL, 3XL and 4XL. Work, due to be completed by year end, will result in two new lines being constructed and a disused link re-opened.

In addition, she points out that the ¢600m ($799m) of public investment in the period to 2013 is expected to be boosted by ¢3bn ($4bn) of private sector funding.

This highlights that the French ports industry is being extensively revamped, allowing port authorities to withdraw from operational responsibilities, so that they can recast themselves into a landlord role.

On April 3, implementation of the so-called Strategic Project schedule commences with adoption of the terms of personnel transfer to the private sector. This will be followed by three months of negotiations with operators working in the terminals.

After that, says Ms Helman, there will be two years to apply the reform, with personnel transfer to be carried out by April 2011 at the latest.