Key figures
As a general cargo port, the various types of traffic include crude oil and oil products (oil, gas and chemical products), general cargo (containers and other packaging), dry bulk (minerals and cereals) and liquid bulk (chemicals and food).
The Port also caters for passenger traffic from cruises and regular shipping lines to Corsica and North Africa.
400 ports in the world are being served from Marseilles Fos. In 2009, the port has treated more than 11 200 ships calls (30 calls per day on average).
Its geographical position in Mediterranean Sea and the quadrimodality from which it benefits (river, rail, road, pipeline) sets it as natural gateway to the European markets.
The port features two harbours, the 400-hectare “East Harbour” within the city of Marseille and the “West Harbour” located 70km from Marseille at Fos, on a unique, impressive 10,000-hectare site.
Port activity generates 41,300 jobs in total, including 1,500-strong workforce within the Port Authority, Grand Port Maritime de Marseille.
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS (highlights)
Fos 2XL/4XL
Two new Fos 2XL container terminals will be delivered in early 2010 to private operators MSC and Port synergy (CMA CGM –Dubaï Ports),who will be able to begin their works for a launching in 2011. In the future, they will assure a traffic of 1.4 million containers.
Hutchison, n°1 worldwide for port exploitation, has been shortlisted in March 2010 for “Fos 4XL “ container terminal running, a project planned for 2018.
Fos Distriport
Spurred on by the success of the Fos Distriport logistics zone (180 ha), fully commercialised in 2007, the GPM will expand over an additional 100 ha.
Ikea
Ikea has selected Fos as the location for its distribution platform for the south of Europe.
Two new methane terminals
Both Gaz de France-Suez and Total will progressively commission a second methane terminal in 2010. It will guarantee over 6 million tonnes of LNG per year to the GPMM.
The Fos Faster Company (Vopak/Shell) is preparing a GDF-Suez/Total equivalent capacity methane terminal project. This new terminal will be operational in 2017.
TRAFFIC
Like a lot of European ports, Marseille Fos port authority has suffered from the economic crisis in 2009. To this crisis was added the SPSE pipe breakdown resulting to a loss of 4 million oil tonnes.
Total traffic handled by Marseille Fos port authority’s was 83 million tonnes, down 13% from 2008. Signs of encouragement come from the container traffic up 4%, cruise (+18%) and also biofuels which reach 1 million tonne for the first time in the history of the port.
- General Cargo : 14.5 million tonnes (-4% compared to 2008), including 4.04 million tonnes of roro traffic (-7%) and 882 580 million TEU of container traffic (+4%).
- Crude Oil and Oil Products : 57.07 MT (-10%)
- Dry bulk : 8.46 MT (-40%)
- Liquid bulk : 3.1 MT (-13%)
- Passengers : 2.07 million passengers, including 639,000 cruise passengers (+18%)
INVESTMENT
The 2009 investment is estimated to €128 millions, a significant amount which has been reached only twice in the whole history of the port. The 2009-2013 investment program is rated to 600 million euros generating more than 3 billion private investments on the port area.
Management
