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Le Havre's Terminal de France leads container growth
POSTED: 9:55 a.m. EDT, May 18,2007
The French Port of Le Havre has seen its container trade grow in the first three months of the year to 609,000 TEU, which means that its container terminals have handled 27 per cent more boxes than in the same period a year ago.
Port authorities are describing this growth as the best quarterly result since the third quarter of 2004 when 574,000 TEU were handled.
To keep up with the growth, a second terminal at its Port 2000, called Terminal Porte Oceane, is scheduled to begin operations in early autumn. This summer's construction of six new berths will begin at Port 2000. These berths are expected to be completed between September 2009 and May 2010.
The first terminal to open at Port 2000 was Terminal de France, which marked its first year in operation last month. By mid-April terminal operators at Terminal de France handled over 500,000 TEU, and more than 500 vessel calls. The largest container movements handled on a single ship so far amounted to 5,406 TEU in February by the Xin Shanghai, a vessel jointly operated by China Shipping Container Lines and CMA-CGM.
Port authorities predict that as Port 2000 is close to receiving 50 vessels and a total of 56 000 TEU a month, Terminal de France is expected to reach its target of 660,000 TEU this year. |
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