French ports handle disproportionately small cargo volumes compared to Italian and Spanish competitors

Valencia, Spain (Ports Europe) June 15, 2020 – French ports lag significantly behind their Spanish and Italian counterparts in gross weight of seaborne goods handled as well as in the transport of containers (TEUs), despite France having a much larger economy. The latest available data from the EU statistical office Eurostat shows that in the third quarter of 2019 (Q3, 2019) Spain’s ports handled 126.4 million tonnes of cargo versus 74.4 million tonnes by the French equivalents. Italy’s ports processed 125.8 million tonnes. This data should be viewed on the background of two simple indicators – gross domestic product (GDP) and population. France GDP in 2019 was €2.35 trillion (population 60 million people); Italy has a GDP of €1.75 trillion (60.4 million people); Spain has a GDP of €1.2 trillion (47.3 million people) In container transportation, there is no French port in the top six EU ports in the Mediterranean for 2019 (total container throughput in 1,000 TEUs and percentage change from 2018): Valencia (Spain) 5,441 (5%); Algeciras (Spain) 5,120 (7.3%); Barcelona (Spain) 3,324 (-2.9%); Marsaxlokk (Malta) 2,720 (-17.8%); Genoa (Italy) 2,635 (1%); and Gioia Tauro (Italy) 2,523 (8.4%). At the end of last century, Mediterranean ports were recognised for labour conflicts, low productivity, poorly functioning railways, slow and bureaucratic custom and control services, high costs, lack of reliability and excessive state interference in the business. But in the 21st century, these ports have achieved greater independence from the governments, which led to more efficient management and a more aggressive commercial policy. A very large part of the growth in the Mediterranean ports’ cargo volumes is related to the transhipment business: Algeciras, for example, is an almost pure transhipment hub, while Valencia and Barcelona combine transhipment flows with gateway cargo to the (mainly Spanish) hinterland. Ever-increasing maritime transport containerisation has transformed the nature of the competition between the ports, encouraging intermodality. Large shippers tend to reduce port container calls in long-distance trips in order to take advantage to economies of scale in sailing huge ships. These two factors work in favour of ports specialised in transhipment, leading to the establishment of Algeciras and Gioia Tauro as maritime cargo hubs in the West Mediterranean and Marsaxlokk, Malta, in the East Mediterranean. French ports are not so successful in the transhipment business. They also were slower in increasing capacity, adopting advanced technology and state of the art information systems In the last two decades, global container transport, particularly container transport from Asia to Europe, has increased dramatically with the majority of containers transported via the expanded Suez Canal. Competition for these containers between European container ports is fierce due to the ease of handling containers at ports and the associated hinterland transport. It seems the French ports missed this trend and now have to play the difficult game of catch up. Globally, the main cargo source is China. Its new Silk Road (part of the Belt and Road initiative also known as One Belt, One Road, or OBOR) is a Chinese economic strategy to seek better access for Chinese-made products in European markets, which includes acquiring stakes in ports and other transport facilities, and cooperation agreements with countries along the Silk Road routes. Chinese state-owned enterprises COSCO Shipping Ports and China Merchants Port Holdings acquired stakes in the French ports of Le Havre, Nantes, Marseille, but this did not lead to explosive growth in their seaborn goods handles cargo handling operations (as it happened with Greek Piraeus). Gross weight of in EU ports (quarterly in million tonnes) CountryQ3Q4Q1Q2Q320182018201920192019Spain124.8126.8123.2127.1126.4Italy129.9123.2107.4146.5125.8France77.177.176.37574.4Greece44.343.341.546.145.8Portugal23.721.422.121.620.6Romania14.412.611.512.414.3Bulgaria8.87.47.278.7Slovenia5.66.25.85.85.7Croatia5.25.34.34.84.7Cyprus1.91.821.81.9Malta0.80.90.71.21.0Montenegro (non EU)0.50.50.40.60.5 Copyright (C) Ports Europe. All Rights Reserved. 2020.

French ports handle disproportionately small cargo volumes compared to Italian and Spanish competitors

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French ports handle disproportionately small cargo volumes compared to Italian and Spanish competitors

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All news

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Two cocaine shipments, 720 kg and 720 kg, seized in Vlissingen port

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Our Expert Analysis

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Top Ports