the past couple of years. However, in 2009 and 2010, there have
leading the way.
previous year, although total traffic was down by 11% overall.
would have been much better.
reduction in imported fertilizer.
their fields, so imports dropped away. Nitrate-based fertilizer
harvested,” Buvry explains.
volumes may well rise 4–5%. Cereals, in particular, are having a
bigger percentage growth by the end of the year. Fertilizer
volumes have also begun to recover. Buvry reports healthy
traffic.
Coal remains the largest single commodity handled. In this,
generated electricity comes from nuclear installations. The
Australia, Poland, Russia, South Africa and the US.
Nantes’ dry bulk volumes, too. Although soya meal from Brazil
equation, the final figure of 2mt remains impressive.
“Soya meal was expensive, so imports dropped off. It is used
function of price, so last year we imported less. Rape seed
is an adjacent crushing plant owned by Cargill. The same
says Buvry.
Export cereals (wheat, barley and corn), accounted for 1.3mt.
behind Rouen and La Rochelle, but ahead of Dunkirk and
Bordeaux. Long-term growth is predicted because of rising
global demand for wheat and barley. Exports go mainly to Spain
and Portugal, but also to North & West Africa, and the Near East.
Since cereals show no signs of slowing in growth, a new silo
project — the first for 15 years — is taking shape. Nantes is
particularly well placed to serve France’s largest cereals
producing region, much of whose output can easily be shipped
into the port by rail, given a good network connection.
The port additionally acts as a discharge point for seadredged
aggregates, mostly sand, amounting to 2mt. This traffic
is state-regulated, although incumbent producers are now
actively seeking permission to dredge extra tonnage to supply
the recovering construction industry.
Cement traffic is also expected to take off in the near future.
There used to be a cement terminal in the port, which was
managed by an independent company. This was taken over by
Holcim in March and exports are now expected to increase,
since the Swiss giant has no production facility of its own in
western France.
In terms of future capacity, there is enough handling area to
accommodate future demand, but it is accepted that investment
will have to be made in new equipment. The proposed new
Rennes–Le Mans TGV rail line, for example, will require at least
2mt of materials, which will stretch existing equipment
availability at the port to the limit.
Scrap is another commodity of growing importance to
Nantes. Last year, volumes grew 30% to 348,000 tonnes.
“We have two major metal crushing plants, one located in
Nantes and the other at Montoir. Within five years, we
anticipate handling 500,000–600,000 tonnes annually. Initially,
exports went to Spain, then Italy, and now Turkey, which has
become the leading importer of scrap in Europe. The crushing
plants have, however, also signed recent contracts with India and
China,” he reports, predicting a 20% increase during 2010.
As of 1 January 2011, major changes are to take place in the
management of dry bulk operations at the port, as reforms
implemented as part of changes to existing legislation will
effectively see the port authority restricted to a landlord, with
responsibility for global development, while operations pass to
new private sector companies. Port authority equipment and
workers will therefore be acquired by these new operators.
Montoir Coal Terminal will be managed by a joint venture
consisting of EDF and Sea-Invest, while operations at the nearby
Multi-Bulk Terminal will be divided between two stevedoring
groups. One of the four berths will be managed by EDCM on
behalf of cement producer Holcim and agribulk specialists
Sonastock, while the remaining three will have a new operator:
Montoir Bulk Terminal, which is itself a joint venture between
Sea-Invest and local stevedore NTTM.
Both new operators have agreed to buy existing port
authority equipment, but an agreed investment plan will also see
some older cranes replaced and new equipment brought in to
handle potential new traffic flows.
Fifty kilometres up-river from Montoir, dry bulk handling at
the old port of Nantes will also be split. Currently, no final
decision has yet been made on who will operate facilities on the
south bank of the Loire river, although Sonastock has already
secured the concession for the north bank, which is the location
of the port’s largest grain silo.
The old port of Saint Nazaire, which is also administered by
the port authority, actually falls outside the new legislation.
Here, some 250,000 tons of sunflowers and wheat are handled
annually.
The Port of Bordeaux has also not yet fully implemented all
the structural reform envisaged in the new French Port Law,
which will see the port authority withdraw totally from handling
responsibilities. The present situation is curious in that, while
two private stevedoring groups operate at Bordeaux, they own
neither quayside equipment nor employ those who operate it.
However, as part of the reforms being implemented by ports
throughout France, incumbent stevedoring companies are being
given first option on purchasing equipment from the port. If
they do not exercise this, it will be offered to other bidders
through a bidding process. In future, all crane drivers will work
solely for private operators, too.
The Bulknes bulk vessel at the Port of Bordeaux.
Ms Laurence Bouchardie of the port’s commercial
department explains that, in Bordeaux, as elsewhere, the transfer
process is not yet complete. However, negotiations are under
way which may eventually see the two handling groups — Sea
Invest and Balguerie — jointly acquiring dockside cranes from
the port authority, whilst retaining their independent identities in
terms of client relations.
“Once the reforms have been completed, is should be easier
for vessel owners to negotiate contracts with the two cargo
handling groups,” she suggests.
Notwithstanding this bureaucratic streamlining, shipping
companies will initially see little difference in terms of handling
company even when the reforms have taken place. This is
because the incumbent handlers tend to specialize in different
sectors. Balguerie, for example, works mostly with wood
products, or industrial bulks, while Sea Invest is much more
dedicated to more traditional dry bulk cargo. However, both
want the option of moving into other sectors if opportunities
present themselves.
“By having a joint operating company, handling equipment will
be more intensively used than if each were to acquire cranes of
their own. In reality, Bordeaux is a relatively small port and this
would not be economic,” says Bouchardie.
In terms of traffic, dry bulk amounted to about 2.5mt in 2009.
The three main products were: cereals and oilseeds (1,317,705
tonnes), fertilizer (538,354 tonnes) and coal and petcoke
(213,027 tonnes). There was also substantial traffic last year in
timber products, brought about by destruction wreaked by a
hurricane in January 2009, which brought down 40 million cubic
meters of pine wood in the Landes forest in south west France.
This generated substantial export traffic throughout the year to
both Asia (containers) and Northern Europe (bulk).
“The 1.3mt of cereals we exported last year was typical of
the sort of quantities that we handle at Bordeaux, but it was not
exceptional. However, not all corn produced in this area is
necessarily exported. In the past three years, for example, some
400,000 tonnes of corn annually has been used by producers in
our hinterland to make animal feed. But, due to the low cost of
the road transport in Spain, a lot of grain has been shipped out
of this region by road and not by the port. Despite this,
Bordeaux remains the leading corn export port in Europe,”
explains Guillon, the cereals specialist at the port authority’s
commercial department.
For 2010, corn exports are forecast to be similar to last
year’s 1.1mt. However, wheat looks to be substantially better,
with last year’s total of 100,000 tonnes improving to around
170,000 tonnes thanks to a better all round quality of product
on offer. Cereals should therefore grow by around 10% this
year.
Grain mostly arrives by road; rail is not really a factor,
although some consignments are shipped in by barge. Vessels
deployed on cereals trades tend to be in the 30,000dwt range,
which are more than suitable for the 10.5-metre draught to be
encountered at Bassens Dock. However, larger, 40,000dwt
vessels do call at Le Verdon, which is located in the estuary, and
where draught of 13 metres is available.
“Although we handled 2.5mt of dry bulk last year, we
theoretically have a much larger capacity available. Being a
relatively small port, we have no congestion problems. However,
our problem is one of an agricultural hinterland, where there is
little industry requiring large amounts of dry bulk. So, growth in
this sector is not forecast to be dramatic over the next few
years,” comments Bouchardie.
At the port of Rouen, on the River Seine, agribulk specialist,
Lecureur, has two almost adjacent silos, of 40,000 and 80,000-
tonne capacity respectively. Last year, the company exported
1.2mt of grain, mostly wheat, but also some barley.
Consignments were mainly sent to sub-Saharan Africa, Morocco
and Egypt. The quantity was slightly higher than in 2009, when
around 1.1mt was sold abroad.
“We did witness a slowing down of demand because of the
current global situation, but the impact has not lasted very long.
Fortunately, last year’s harvest was very good, which meant
prices were lower and traffic was consequently higher,” a
spokesperson for Lecureur told DCI.
The company ships outbound consignments to Rouen by
either road or river barge, although large quantities are also
despatched by rail. The mode chosen depends on the quality of
the wheat being transported. Barley, for example, is almost
wholly shipped by road, whereas good-quality wheat tends to go
by barge or train. Wheat originating from Normandy, close to
the terminal, can generate good yields, but this tends to be at
the expense of quality, so road is the preferred transport mode,
noted the spokesperson.
“The best-quality wheat originates in areas to the south of
Paris or around Dijon in the east, or close to La Rochelle or
Nantes in the west,” he explained.
Rouen is the preferred export port because it is the largest
cereals handling facility in France, second in importance is La
Rochelle Pallice, while Dunkerque is the third. Rouen sees calls
from 40,000dwt ships, while Nantes and Dunkirk can handle
Panamax size vessels.
Floating cranes give Marcor the edge in Rotterdam
In 1992/93, mergers within the Port of Rotterdam
resulted in the creation of European Bulk Services,
whose influence in the market was not viewed by
everybody as necessarily beneficial to the market as a
whole. However, ensuring that there was some degree
of choice for customers proved difficult, since terminal
space was expensive and limited in availability.
Spotting a gap in the market, Marcor Stevedoring was
launched in June 1997, being able to break into the bulk
handling market despite the lack of a fixed terminal
installation thanks to the deployment of floating equipment.
General manager, Aad Groenenboom, concedes this
means that the company is effectively limited in some
respects, since it has to concentrate on waterborne
transshipment traffic, given the lack of access to either road or
rail discharge facilities. Despite this, Marcor has expanded both
its range of clients and equipment base: it now operates four
floating cranes, two weighing towers and has a bulk freighter
permanently anchored in the port offering short-term storage
for 25,000-28,0000 tonnes of dry bulk products. Additionally, the
company can, if required, call upon an extensive fleet of storage
barges, allowing up to 100,000 tonnes to be held within the port
at any one time.
Like most players in the European bulk market, Marcor has
struggled in recent times. “In 2009, we suffered a 40% reduction
in both volume and turnover as a result of the economic
downturn. We are slowly recovering from this, but calculate it
will take two to three years to get back to previous traffic
volumes,” says Groenenboom.
Of the four main sector in which Marcor is active, two of
them were particularly badly affected by the recession. Inbound
minerals and coal/ferro alloys — which mostly come from China
and South Africa, with some also from Russia — suffered
significant volume loss, although agribulk and steel scrap were
hardly affected at all.
“The scrap business is export-based and undertaken on
behalf of a local client. Ferro-chrome, which is inbound, is
similarly restricted. In both cases, Marcor acts as a dedicated
service provider to these clients, who are buying and selling on
behalf of their own customers. That means, effectively, we are
not in control of our own destiny,” explains Groenenboom, who
adds that, unlike other major terminals, Marcor is not a major
player in the coal/ore import business, so longer-term radical
growth potential is therefore restricted in these areas.
However, in terms of agribulk, which is mostly compound
feed materials imported from Brazil and Argentina, the company
has a much more direct relationship with its customers. A
similar situation pertains to inbound minerals from China and
South Africa.
Another area showing interesting long term growth potential
is the biomass market, which mostly means wood pellets.
Marcor can achieve 20% faster unloading rates compared to
those of its rivals, and is therefore a highly attractive proposition
for importers.
As for onward transport, Groenenboom calculates that
around 60% of Marcor’s transfer business reaches its final
destination by inland waterway and 40% by coastal shipping.
Barges and inland freighters connect end users all around
Europe, while the extensive movement by coastal vessels takes
consignments as far afield as Spain, Portugal, the UK, the Baltic
states and Scandinavia.
Asked whether the lack of fixed installations means that
Marcor is significantly cheaper than rivals with land-based assets,
Groenenboom says this is not necessarily the case. Both types
of operation have inbuilt costs, although the composition of the
final price both charge is different. Clearly, since it operates
within the port, Marcor has to pay the port authority for doing
so.
“Our main advantage is that we are much more flexible,” he
says, pointing out that the company can handle up to
150,000dwt (Capesize) vessels, although 60,000dwt Panamax
vessels tend to be the main callers. “We can unload one of
these in 48 hours, which is very competitive.”
Clearly, the lack of landside facilities means no added-value
services can be offered, but this is not a problem, since
Groenenboom says that the types of customers attracted to a
floating dry bulk transshipment operation don’t always want
these anyway; they are looking for service, which he says can be
translated as efficiency, reliability, flexibility and above all a high
quality standard.