HAROPA PORT’s maritime traffic down by 4.5% to 81.3Mt in 2023
In 2023 HAROPA PORT registered a marginal decline in its maritime traffic but maintained its Northern Range market share, according to the company's release. France’s leading port complex turned in a satisfactory financial result with turnover of €416m, up by 9.8%, enabling it to stay on its investment trajectory and maintain the same percentage share of finance from own funds.
In 2023, HAROPA PORT’s maritime traffic totalled 81.3Mt, slightly down by 4.5% compared with 2022.
Maritime container flows stood at a total of 2.63m TEU, a decline of 15% due mainly to transhipments. This fall reflects an overall decline in containerised volume processed through the Northern Range ports (down by between 6% and 12% depending on the port), a region in which HAROPA PORT maintained its market share. Additionally, the strikes at the beginning of the year impacted container flows along the Seine Axis.
Transhipments, a more volatile activity in such periods of traffic disorganisation and irregularity, fell by 31%. Inland traffic stood up significantly better, shrinking by a more modest 10%, in line with the slowdown in the world economy. Another factor for resilience should be underscored: the increase in the number of port calls and the continuation of services are confirmation of shipowners’ confidence in HAROPA PORT.
2023 marks the return of the “IEX-IO3” South Asia service (operators Hapag Lloyd, ONE, COSCO, OOCL and Yang Ming), and the “ SWX-EUROSAL XL” Latin America service (Hapag Lloyd, CMA CGM and COSCO). The end of the year featured the resumption of MSC’s “SPAI-Portugal” feeder service.
In the above context, for 2024 HAROPA PORT implemented a new policy for incentivising and competitive tariffs that will help consolidate traffic, especially for large vessels. A cut of 20% in ships’ port dues is now effective and will increase the number of port calls as well as reinforcing regular services.
At 41.2Mt, liquid bulk saw growth of 5% despite a 2.4% fall in the consumption of petroleum products in France as of end November 2023, according to the UFIP (Union française des industries pétrolières). In particular, this growth was driven by the arrival on stream in September 2023 in Le Havre of the FSRU (LNG floating storage and regasification facility). Another contributing factor in this result was the return to normal operation of Normandy’s refineries after several years of disruption due to technical incidents.
The dry bulk sector registered a fall of 11% with total traffic of 12.7Mt. This decline can be put down in particular to a 14% fall in grain exports, for a total of 7.3Mt, after an excellent year in 2022. The final tonnage figure registered by HAROPA PORT represents 50% of all French grain exports. This fallback in the sector is also due to intense competition from Russia. Expansion in feed barley exports only partially offset this trend. The sector also experienced a decline in aggregates traffic.
Ro-ro traffic fell by 9%, registering a little over 249,000 vehicles. This segment continues to be highly volatile after a year affected by delays in new vehicle purchases notably due to the crisis in semiconductor supply in 2021/2022. HAROPA PORT is adapting to meet the needs of operators by mobilising an extra 20 hectares of its land for vehicle storage.
Sea cruise activity continued on its positive trajectory. In total, 459,373 passengers were processed through HAROPA PORT, a figure up by 53%, representing 182 cruise ships compared with 171 in 2022, an increase of 6.4%.
The Seine Axis Major River and Maritime Port, HAROPA PORT, is the fourth largest Northern European port. It has connections to every continent based on an international maritime offering in the very first rank, reaching nearly 700 ports. It serves a vast hinterland centred on the Seine Valley and the Paris region, which together form France’s biggest consumer catchment area. From Le Havre to Paris, the port complex can point to 2.5m sq. m. of logistics warehousing currently in service. Today, HAROPA PORT provides a transport and logistics system capable of proposing holistic, end-to-end and decarbonised service offerings. It generates annual maritime and river traffic of over 102.2 million tonnes, generating around 160,000 jobs.
