WASHINGTON: Dunkirk, France’s third busiest port, has released strong traffic results for 2016, confirming its ambition to become a multi-traffic hub for northern France and beyond. Total traffic totalled 46.7m tonnes, a 0.3% year-on-year rise – more impressive than it might seem because the 2015 figure had been inflated by a large amount of ro-ro traffic displaced from neighbouring Calais owing to industrial action and migrant unrest at that port.
Broken down by separate traffics, containers rose 7% to 341,000 teu, coal by 6% to 5.4m tonnes, other solid bulks by 9% to 2.4m tonnes, and liquid bulk by 2% to 4.3m tonnes. Grains were down 8% to 2.8m tonnes – because of France’s very poor harvests last year – while ro-ro dropped even greater in volume by 2% to 16m tonnes, described by the port as “a rebalancing to normal after the extraordinary result in 2015 but still very satisfactory.” Announcing the results at a press conference in Lille, Grand Port Maritime de Dunkerque (GPMD) ceo Stéfane Raison said the port did not merely wish to “defend existing markets but also target new ones.” In particular, Raison pointed to the start-up of LNG shipments into the port, as well as expansion of the existing container terminal plus launch of a public consultation on the building of a new one.
The port’s chief commercial officer Daniel Deschodt detailed to Seatrade Maritime News how the existing Flanders Terminal, is operated by an eponymous company controlled by Terminal (owned 51% by CMA CGM Group and 49% China Merchants Holdings International) with quay length of 1.2 km and water depth up to 16.5 m. The expansion project, to be ready by end-2018, will add another berth of 400 m adjacent to the existing one, allowing the simultaneous berthing of two Ultra Large Container Ships rather than only one at present, and raising capacity from 650,000 teu to 900,000 teu.
After that a public debate will be launched in September, he continued, into the digging of a new basin inland of the existing Flanders Terminal. A new terminal located there could be gradually phased in over the period 2020-2040, growing port capacity to an eventual 3.5m teu. Container traffic is certainly on the increase, Deschodt said it is expected to reach 400,000 teu this year, which would represent highly impressive 17% growth. Cooperation with French rail operator SNCF was also on the increase, he added, fuelling Dunkirk’s ambitions to become an important multimodal hub for the surrounding Hauts-de-France region – also including the ports of Calais and Boulogne, specialising in passenger ferry traffic and fish processing respectively – and beyond.
