Located in the west of Port 2000, the new TNMSC terminal will extend along 1,400 metres of quay. In early 2012, the first containers could be handled there. At present, MSC vessels in Le Havre berth at ‘quai Bougainville’.
Stephan Snijders – General Manager of MSC France – says he is « delighted that development has started with a first delivery, in early 2012, pending the delivery of the other berths by late 2012. The new facilities will enable our biggest vessels to benefit from a guaranteed draught of 16m. This will bring, without any doubt, business increase and development of MSC in Le Havre».
TNMSC and SETO companies have selected the teams of the ‘Grand Port Maritime du Havre’ (port of Le Havre authority), and more especially its “Buildings, and infrastructure works” Department, to carry out the project management for the works.
Like the Port 2000 terminals already in operation, this new extension will provide the 2nd world biggest shipping line with installations suited for the operation of the giants of the seas calling at Le Havre without tidal constraints.
The TNMSC company has designed its terminal at Port 2000 under the focus of multimodality. The terminal will especially include a traffic exchange area dedicated to road traffic, railway lines located in the rear of the terminal as well as the operation of waterway solutions, in order to consolidate all mass transport flows. Christian de Tinguy – General Manager of TNMSC – confirms the main challenges of this project: “the installation by TNMSC of a major Hub for MSC in Le Havre ‘Port 2000’ facilities marks a new stage of development of the shipping line in Le Havre. The 1,400-metre quay development, which means for TNMSC / SETO a total investment of 160 million euro, will enable MSC to have any kind of vessels of the fleet – including 14,000 TEU ships – calling at the same wharf whatever the time and tide. The number of jobs generated by the terminal operation will be in line with the expected traffic growth.”
As Laurent Castaing reminded it recently, « a certain number of investment decisions – pending – now reach a successful end with the implementation of the reform and the new deal of Le Havre port, thus providing significant growth prospects in the port of Le Havre. The decision made by TNMSC to strengthen their presence by developing their new facilities strengthens our ambition to provide the best service to our international customers. »
The increase of container handling capacity is a major step and brings new growth prospects for the French port leader for containerised trades. This is indeed a response to the ambitious objectives set by the reform of French ports and to the strategic lines of the Grand Port Maritime du Havre: that is doubling container traffic by the years 2020, to reach 5 million TEU.