Balance and incentives
Le Havre is offering its customers solutions with verve – for today and the future.
No, we’re not talking about the Wuhan coronavirus here, aka Covid-19. We’re talking about strikes in France that have also affected Haropa Ports, including Le Havre. After 14 full days lost in December and January to strikes in protest against a reform of the country’s pensions system, Laurent Foloppe, Haropa’s sales and marketing director, told the ITJ in a telephone conference that “the end of the strike now seems to be coming soon in Le Havre.”
Le Havre’s port community has introduced a number of measures to regain old clients – and win new ones. The signatories have agreed to cover additional warehousing costs for containers stored in Le Havre’s terminals in December and January – around 100,000 imported containers, at EUR 30 per day and box. The port authority will contribute EUR 18; terminal operators EUR 12. The measure will result in EUR 3 million in additional outlays.
Over and above this a 30% reduction in port dues will be granted to shipping lines for the strike period. This ‘loyalty bonus’, as Foloppe called it, will cost the port another EUR 2 million. Furthermore, carriers introducing new services to and from Le Havre from April 2020 will benefit from this measure for two years.
Everyone chipping in
And last but not least, all of the pilotage, towing and mooring service providers operating in the port have decided to apply a 10% discount for new services calling at Le Havre between 1 April and 31 December 2020. This commercial measure concerns containerships and ro-ro vessels.
The overall package the port community has prepared at this stage is thus worth approximately EUR 6.1 million. “Our overall aim,” Foloppe underlined, “is to restore our customers’ confidence in the gateway.” Foloppe added that initial reactions to the financial amelioration steps have been positive.
A smart port in the offing
Work on the further digitalisation of the port’s activities was not interrupted by the recent upheaval, according to Cyril Chédot. The hub’s head of innovation and planning also coordinates initiatives in the context of the ‘Smart Port City’. “In April 2019 the port of Le Havre became the only port region to be one of the eleven participants in the ‘Smart Port City’ programme,” he elaborated. Over the next decade the French state is set to invest EUR 240 million as seed money in 21 projects.
One of the focal points is integrating 5G technology into existing systems. In the 26 GHz frequency range the port is cooperating with Nokia and EDF; they have formed the ‘5G Lab’ working group. An initial test phase will see a focus on improving transport solutions for liquid bulk goods and optimising operations in ro-ro terminals, which is increasingly gearing up to electric vehicle services.
Another project will see Orange, Cisco and the new firm Soget bundle and then improve data utilisation in a central platform. This work will improve cargo-handling efficiency and planning in the terminals and on board vessels and ensure security in document exchange and payment processes. The ‘smart age’ is continuing its inexorable march.
