The future lies in port complexes combining several ports and a large interior territory. A year and a half after the launch of Haropa Port, a merger operation intended to better integrate the activity of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris to ensure the development of the Seine axis, its managing director presented, on Monday January 16 , the 2022 results of the first French river-sea group. And a still provisional assessment of this marriage defended by Edouard Philippe as mayor of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), then as prime minister between 2017 and 2020.
“In 2022, even in an international context marked by several crises, Haropa Port did more than resist”, believes Stéphane Raison. The volume of maritime traffic increased by 2% (85.1 million tonnes), notably thanks to cereals (deferred to Rouen due to the war in Ukraine) and oil, while that of containers (3.1 million ‘twenty foot equivalent units) was progressing very slightly, at least in number. On the other hand, river traffic fell by 6%, penalized by the decline in construction activity.
The public establishment has a first strategic objective, demanded by the State: to decarbonize the thirteen industrial-port zones which are scattered, from the Paris region to Le Havre. This involves the production of biogas from waste by Paprec at the port of Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine), and the opening of multi-energy stations (green gas, hydrogen, etc.) supplying barges and trucks. In Port-Jérôme, between Rouen and Le Havre, the American Eastman will build a major plastic production and recycling plant, and Air Liquide, a green hydrogen production unit.
Increase reception and storage capacities
Haropa’s second objective is to create a “multimodal” logistics corridor between the capital region and Le Havre, where river and rail (only 13.3% of containers sold) would take market share from road transport, much more CO emitter2. Mr. Raison welcomes the choice of Ikea to transport everything by the Seine from Le Havre. And especially the decision of the Italian-Swiss MSC, the world’s leading shipowner, to invest 700 million euros in the Normandy port to increase reception and storage capacities. Two new state-of-the-art berths will increase container traffic, while a “cat flap” linking Port 2000 to the old port will allow better transhipment of containers on barges in 2025.
By creating Haropa Port, the public authorities granted it an envelope of 1.45 billion euros for 2020-2027, which offers a financial leverage effect to private actors.
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