C. The port : multimode platform of transshipment
The European Commission became aware of the paramount role of the
platforms of transshipment while working on the directing diagram of the
seaports. The latter represent a key sector for European transport and the
European economy since they are the interface between the European Union and
the other continents. The maritime function is the motive fluid of the economic
activity.
The ports represent, for the intercontinental traffics, of the
obliged points of passage of the goods which are collected there and treated
but they are only points of transit where freight changes means of transport.
It is necessary then to convey it by terrestrial way in order to serve the
hinterland or to give the responsability it aboard the ships (after the
terrestrial pre-routing) to dispatch it.
In that the seaport resembles of much a multimode platform, the
door of access to the continent. It is the interface between the maritime
transport and the surface transports.
Thus, the new conditions of navigation (gigantism) create massive
arrivals and by waves of goods, requiring good systems of surface transports in
order to evacuate the storage sections quickly.
The multimodality, or intermodality, or combined transport then
consist in using two or several of transport for the carriage of goods grouped
in units of load. Indeed, the transfer of a means of transport to another can
be carried out without dissociation of the unit of load (container) of the
place of forwarding instead of destination thanks to a suitable material :
powerful gantries, straddle loaders...
Among the techniques used in multimode transport,
containerization again played a very important part in the development of the
intermodal technique: the containers are a solution under development for
the problem of the breaking bulks, they are interchangeable of a means of
transport with another and thus support the development of the logistics which
requires the complementarity of all the means of transport for a better
effectiveness but also the reduction of the costs of transshipment by the
simplification and the acceleration of the operations of handling.
Within the framework of an intermodal transport, one
distinguishes three phases :
§ the pre one and/or post-routing
§ principal transport, on long distance ensured by a means
of competitive transport
§ with the interface of both, intermodal platforms dealing
with the transshipment of the UTI of one mode with the other
The UTI constitute the common denominator to the whole of the
means of transport. Each actor of the intermodal chain must obligatorily obtain
specific equipment allowing to convey the UTI.
Thus, attraction is maximum if to qualities of accessibility and
service road is added the harbor effectiveness. In the choice of the chargers
and ship-owners, the facilities of transshipment, the least significant rupture
of the logistic chain are indeed increasingly decisive. The ports thus seek to
become competitive intermodal centers with very powerful integrated terminals.
The most efficient techniques are put at the service of the objectives of
speed, capacity and reliability.
The research of compatibility between modes or techniques of
transport was an important objective to improve the cost ratio/effectiveness
and to increase the productivity : such is the direction of the
containerization of the carriage of goods. For the companies, the cost of
transport is an element of competitiveness of the products and the control of
the chain, a means of following a policy of penetration or control of the
markets.
Super the container ships thus serve only the final installations
of great scale profiting from important terrestrial infrastructures to convey
the containers in the back-country.
The multimodality thus appears as an element determining in the
competition that large Europeans deliver themselves to attract the
containers.
The two large ports of the Benelux countries melt their
activities in a very broad measurement on the transshipment. In Rotterdam, the
proportion of containers being the subject of a transshipment is 50%, in
Antwerp of 55%. The importance of the transshipment attests the impact which
they exert one and the other on the choice of the large maritime operators.
To treat the traffic of containers which increases on average by
8% per annum to Europe, the great harbor establishments arrange vast
specialized terminals. The majority of the European harbor places have projects
of development and adjustment of their infrastructures, in Hamburg as in
Rotterdam with Maasvlakte and Le Havre with Port 2000.
D. The project Le Havre Port 2000
a) Presentation of the harbor platform
Planted in front of the Atlantic, this seaport out of deep water
is not affected by the tides. All the ports do not have this chance. With about
fifteen meters of depth, plus seven meters of marling, Le Havre can receive the
gigantic container ships which present a draft of 14 meters. Le Havre is the
only port, for the moment, with being able to receive from the 6000 EVP, with
Rotterdam and this, unconstrained of chenalage nor of crossing of lock. There
the armaments have the certainty of always being able to use their ships with
full load. The future reception of units of 8000 EVP should not pose problem
either : they are hardly inserted more ; the increase in capacity is
obtained by a greater width. The port also profits from its geographical
situation of 1st port touched with the importation and the last to export at
only 15 hours of navigation of the Atlantic.
Since 1986, the port of Le Havre entered a new phase of
prosperity and in fact today the various goods hoist it with the row of the
first European ports and make of it the first French port for the traffic
containerized with 50% of the national traffic.
The port has for the importers and exporters of infrastructures
reception allowing them all the logistic functions (storage, packing,
conditioning...).
Le Havre has near its four km quay, of 150 hectares storage, 8
hangars adding up 88.000 m ², 13 gantries of 40 tons, 7 railway gantries
of 42 tons.
The competitiveness of the port was obtained following the
legislative reform of handling : the port saw its prices dropping, the
expenses of loading and of unloading to the container terminals were
reduced.
Certain indicators make it possible to estimate the weight of the
port of Le Havre in regional economic dynamics : the harbor activity
generates an economic flow estimated at 800 million francs, the added value
generated by the port and the harbor community is estimated at 2 billion francs
and the port brings approximately 500 million francs to the Seine Maritime.
Today, the development of the port of Le Havre lies within the
scope of a regional development.
In front of the need for having a harbor community more welded to
face competition, association Port Alliance was created in 1986 with the
support which been able Port authority. Alliance port, whose role is to promote
the harbor place on the level national and international gathers :
§ The Port authority of Le Havre
§ The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Le Havre
§ Harbor community of Le Havre : the UMEP (Maritime
and Harbor Union)
Le Havre accounts for 7,5% of the shares of the market of the
containers of Arranges the North-West (5th position but share of market which
progresses most quickly). The objective for the port is to reach the 10%.
The Norman port profited from the abundance of the energy vracs
which weighed 46,6 million tons including 37 of the crude oil, 5,2 of refined
products and 3,9 of coal...
Within the framework of a total growth with two digits, the
Native of Le Havre also established a new record as regards traffic of the
containers with 1,32 million EVP, that is to say approximately 60%du total
specific traffic of the ports of the Hexagon.
Among the 66,9 million tons tariffed by the port of Le Havre in
1998 (including 16 million tons of various goods), more half (52% of the
tonnage registered) relates to combined transport.
b) The Project Port 2000
The project answers a stake of size, which does not relate to
only the place havraise and its employment, but the very whole French economy.
Indeed, how to indeed remain indifferent to the fate of the
harbor tool of the Hexagon, whereas the traffics lost with the profit of
Antwerp and Rotterdam would mean in the long run delocalizations and dependence
increased with respect to foreign logistic chains ?
Let us recall that the harbor stake conferred on the port of Le
Havre answers an economic strategy with a future very important : the
States of the European Union will lose their economic specificity and will
unify as regards tax policy, monetary and budgetary, that the people, the
capital and the services will be increasingly mobile and will feel less the
borders. Then, more and more, the good equipment in infrastructures of a
country will become an economic asset even more important, bus with the
macro-economic effect revealing the space externalities will be added the
effect of preferential localization compared to the other countries. Thus, in a
Community world from which the rules of operation will escape the States more
and more, the policy of infrastructures is likely to become one of the rare
weapons of which they can lay out with their liking, and who will all the more
be of for them interest which it is effective.
The project Port 2000 thus materializes the ambition of the
harbor community havraise to see to fit in the estuary of the Seine the
equipment making it possible to accommodate and treat the largest container
ships and to fix the stopovers durably of them. The stake is serious for the
door « océane » but also for France which needs
harbor places of international scale, able to integrate the Community
requirements and the world challenges. Because the current evolution of the
goods traffic in Le Havre in constant progression amplifies the urgent need for
Port 2000. With the 1.320.000 EVP which were treated there in 1998, the port of
Le Havre is located honourably on the European chess-board. In 1998, the
traffic of the containers is in increase of 11,2%, growth definitely higher
than those of Antwerp and Rotterdam.
There is thus urgency, at the current rate of the growth of the
container activity in Le Havre, the saturation of the infrastructures
threatens.
In this European competition, Rotterdam, first European port with
its some
3.700.000 EVP is indétronable. On the other hand, Le Havre
- which passed the million containers since 1996 - wants to try to position
vis-a-vis Antwerp and Hamburg in order to attract on its quays the
massification of flows of containers. Massifier is the Master word of the step,
that the containers come by ground or sea, and for fidéliser the
customers armateuriale.
However, the other European harbor places do not remain the
weapon with the foot. Efforts are made both in Rotterdam and in Antwerp, to
accelerate the number of revolutions of the ships and the flow of freight in
the back-country, with public equipments by far higher than what they can be in
the Hexagon. In France, the investments of the harbor establishments are mainly
financed by their own receipts. Thus the project Port 2000 of an eminently
national stake was emitted by the community harbor itself and transmitted to
the Ministry for Transport. The investigation of public utility is envisaged at
the end of 1999 and the decision of the Ministry for Transport awaited in the
tread, at the beginning of year 2000.
Cost of the operation : 3,1 billion francs with the startup
of the first section since 2002 to avoid saturation.
Why Port 2000 ?
Initially, the harbor activity and the dependant industrial
activities represent today 30%des employment in the basin of uses of the
Harbor. The containers, with 20% from tonnages and 40% of the stopovers, are
the principal generator of harbor employment.
The reception of the ships, handling, the activities of
storage/handling and the transport of containers employ approximately 8000
people out of the 13000 occupied ones in the harbor and logistic
professions.
Port 2000 answers the globalisation of the economy, the growth of
the international trade and the massification of transport by increasing its
capacities of reception and treatment. Then, by exploiting its geographical
situation- first port touched at the entry of the continent, last port touched
at exit, on its nautical accesses, Port 2000, Le Havre can hope to assert a
major place in the restricted circle of the large European ports.
As elsewhere in Europe, the Le Havre-native terminals were
installed the ones after the others progressively with the needs. They were
built between 1968 and 1994 ; 4 of them are established, at a rate of two
each times, in the north and the south of the tidal dock ; two others are
behind the François lock 1st. This dispersion limits the productivity
both for their operation their terrestrial service roads. The length and the
provision of the quays always do not allow an optimal positioning of the ships.
The quay levels in shrinking of the quays prove to be insufficient, in any case
not deep enough.
The five container terminals of the Norman port are disseminated
in several points, which lengthens the time of handling and formation of the
trains, which all must pass by sorting native of Le Havre of Soquence. However,
the building site of Soquence inherits a design which goes back to 1925,
directed full west (towards the outer harbor), whereas the harbor activities
moved, since this time towards the south and is (the industrial park). From
where an obligatory graining and a limitation length of the convoys to that of
the ways, 700 meters to the maximum. Today, between the loading of a container
on a harbor terminal and its forwarding since Soquence, it is necessary to
count up to 10 hours of time. Structural and organisational evolutions are thus
necessary.
By an optimal use of spaces available, the restructuring of
certain quay levels, the reconfiguration of certain gantries, the installation
of connections in exclusive right of way between terminals, Le Havre knew up to
now to mitigate these disadvantages and to accompany the evolution by the
traffics. The tools will be reinforced soon by the acquisition of two gantries
overpanamax. However, these measurements proves to be insufficient to answer
the request, saturation threatening.
The recent evolution of the traffics pushed the port to consider
a complete reorganization of its infrastructures to face the intensification of
the international exchanges. New capacities will be thus necessary to answer
the growth of the traffics, powerful and concentrated capacities.
With terminals concentrated on the same site, ordered well and
connected well to the terrestrial service roads, the service as well with the
ship as with the goods will be able only there to gain. Times of stopover could
be reduced, the costs also by avoiding many transfers of limp of an
installation to another. With the key, very significant savings in handling and
savings of time from two to three hours on the forwarding of a container, which
is far from being negligible for a forwarding agent or a charger.
In addition to the functional reorganization of the port,
enlarging of the capacities of reception of the ships and the adequate supply
of the material, the increase awaited on each terrestrial mode forces to
develop for the three modes of powerful installations in terms of capacity and
competitiveness for the access and the service road of the terminals. The
railway infrastructures will be thus in the vicinity immediate of the terminals
and will allow the constitution of complete trains being able to gain the
national network directly. The terminals themselves will be concentrated,
forming an uninterrupted succession of stations with quay with the ground full
contiguous.
In the space located at the south of the wet dock of the Ocean,
new river, railway and road infrastructures will be carried out in the vicinity
immediate of the quays.
The studies of the project Port 2000 integrate the railway
service road of the new terminals which are considered there. It is envisaged,
in particular, to create a large single railway building site there,
facilitating the constitution and the fast evacuation of the complete trains
directly being able to join the national shoed network.
For the river one, the direct passage in the current southern dam
would make it possible the river barges to serve directly the quays (river
dedicated terminal). The road service road of the terminals should also be
improved.
Objective of the PAH : 12 km of quays for container ships in
2050 with in first phase the installation of an initial quay of 700 meters
length and 35 hectares of quay levels and in second phase one 2nd 700 meters
length quay. The two joined together quays would make it possible to treat
700.000 additional EVP per annum.
The logic of the massification thus forces the harbor authorities
to develop their infrastructures of reception and treatment of the ships, but
also of new service roads close to the new terminals to quickly evacuate
freight in the hinterland.
Indeed, to face European competition and to propose with the
French and European customers an alternative in Antwerp and Rotterdam, Le Havre
needs absolutely, in addition to Port 2000, of powerful terrestrial connections
for the pre one and post-routing of the goods. Port 2000 will be nothing
without adequate logistics, without competitive handling, and especially,
without effective terrestrial service road, because it is one of the major
conditions of the widening of the door
« océane ».
Thus the Port authority of Le Havre supports a project of
installation of a powerful railway line in terms of cost and speed, dedicated
to the freight, which would enable him to extend its surface of distribution
and its influence on the back European country.
However one can wonder why the railway means of transport causes
to you it thus today a keen interest whereas the port and the State always
supported until at the time the road service road ? Which are the assets
of iron compared to the other means of transport ?
II. THE TERRESTRIAL SERVICE ROAD OF THE
BACK-COUNTRY : THE ROLE OF THE RAILROAD
The European ports are engaged today in a race with the gigantism
requiring of good systems of surface transport in order to quickly evacuate the
zones of concentration and storage of the goods near the ports. The role of the
surface transports in the service road of the back-country is thus
considerable. Their capacity and their extent will be factor of competitiveness
for the port which they serve. In this context, the port of Le Havre must
optimize its existing ground networks, and in particular develop the
potentialities of the railway mode.
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