Port of Le Havre, Kind Cooperator in Sino-France Business Development

Port of Le Havre lies at the center of the western coast of Europe as the largest French Port for external & container trade and the fifth biggest port in North-European Area. In 2007 the traffic of port of Le Havre globally increased by 6.6% in overall tonnage and for the container trade, it increases 2.64 million TEU which is about the 2/3 of the containers handled in French ports. This time during the port’s Bohai Rim trade mission to Dalian, the journalist of Shippingchina.com takes the great honor to interview Mr. Christian Leroux, Chairman of Port Users Association and Mr. Pierre-Yves Collardey, Commercial Director of Port of Le Havre Authority. (Represents as L in the following part)

J: Welcome to Dalian! What is the goal for your delegation coming to Dalian this time?
L: Thank you and we come to promote that Port of Le Have is changing of its scale now from the year 2006&2007 as the new option in Europe. Another purpose besides the promotion is to establish sister port relationship between Port of Le Havre and Port of Dalian. Le Havre and Dalian have established the sister city relationship for more than 20 years since 1985 and for this time we are negotiating the sister relationship for the two ports with Dalian Port Authority this morning to discuss the future cooperation between the two ports. A third reason is, we would like to build the new links with new shippers by the summits held in Dalian. Once our delegation comes to Dalian, we carry more than one purpose.

J: Thank you for your kind intention for Dalian. So would you give an introduction about your port’s status?
L: There are three main advantages. If you look carefully on the map, you will see when a vessel in its European part of loop entering Europe and going out of Europe, Port of Le Havre is the first and last call for the English Channel/North Sea route. And as through English Channel/North Sea route a quarter of the world cargo trade passes in transit, there is no doubt about the advantage brought by the location of the port. Le Havre is included in the round trips of large liner ships providing the shortest transit-times for intercontinental trade. Secondly, we are a deep-water seaport, which can accommodate all types of vessels around the clock and all year through, without any tidal constraints. The third advantage is being flexible of Europe. Our rail connections are besides the saturation. The rail connections of Le Havre terminals are provided by miscellaneous transporters: SNCF and newcomers such as Veolia Cargo. In 2007, about 100,000 TEU were carried on the various services. As for waterway transport, the river Seine- a large-gauge navigable waterway- is accessible to 5,000-ton pusher trains of barges. The latest development of waterway transport accounts for 160,000 TEU in 2007.
The port security is also guaranteed. It has a department to carry out general surveillance missions in the harbor area and specific control and surveillance missions at the entries and exits to the terminals. Certification of ISO 28000 in 2009 will results the port being the first European Port Authority to offer its security commitment to customers.

J: Thank you for your thorough introduction. Would you introduce more about what are the main goods transferred between Le Havre and China? And how is the port’s transportation capacity for China?
L: Now from China to Le Havre the mainly export products are textile, industry production, electronic mechanism, food and so on. From Le Havre to China the goods are mainly “made in France” including red& white wine, perfume, plastic, paper and agricultural mechanism. For the port’s cargo transportation capacity, now there have 14 fixed shipping lines every week between Le Havre and China to 11 Chinese ports such as Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hong Kong and so on. China is the No.1 trade partner for Le Havre and every year the goods transferred from China occupies 80% of the totally amount goods for Le Havre.

J: Is there some new project to be carried out between Le Havre and China in the near future?
J: Yes. In fact Le Havre is quite much involved with China in terms of traders, universities, sister cities relationship establishment and so on. And there is a convention in Le Havre becomes more and more famous every year called China-Europa. It gathers shippers, manufacturers from China with the manufacturing industries in Europe. The 4th edition will be in 2010 in Dalian. So we have started the project for the 1st and 2nd and it is successful. The 3rd is still in Le Havre and the 4th is in Dalian means instead of the Chinese shippers, manufactures to go abroad, their counterpart will come from Europe to meet Chinese managers. That is an example of the project.

J: Thank you for your kind intention for the Chinese partners. Now the economy crisis has influenced industries globally so what do you think you port should do in front of the economy crisis?
L: I must say we should not underestimate the economy crisis. In order to maintain the future development of Le Havre Port, we must find news logistics solutions to keep our competency. Our new solutions are not only limited to lower prices, but also better services and the tailored logistics solutions, which could reduce the international transportation cost for our clients. We hope to make kind cooperation together with the Chinese partners to overcome the panic and embrace a bright tomorrow.

J: How do you think to establish the e-business as the enhancement for the economy re-booming between China and France?
L: For us e- business is not a problem because we have the most advanced system in Le Havre linking all the professionals in the port industries and linking also the shippers. So if you do the e-business in Dalian for sure we will enter to cooperation to say what we can do.

Journalist: Betty Chen