Inland Waterways Transport in France - Research Paper Example

Inland Waterways Transport in France Introduction: the main use of inland waterways transport in Europe. The geography of Europe is presents very favourable conditions for transport of freight thanks to some major river systems including the Rhine, the Danube, the Seine and many others. From Roman times onwards this natural network has been extended by means of strategically placed canals, and this process is ongoing into the 21st century. France, with its location at the North Western edge of mainland Europe, is well placed to take advantage of the European inland network and also transatlantic and Baltic shipping lines which makes this a key player in European waterways planning strategy. Main Uses of the Inland Waterways in France (1) Europe wide transport of goods by means of waterways is very diverse with a rough breakdown as follows: Source : Inland Navigation Europe Website. http://www.inlandnavigation.org/en/factsandfigures/statistics/inland_shipping_by_commodity.html The two most frequently carried commodities are agricultural products (28%), and Building materials (24%). One of the complications of studying European transport systems is the lack of standardization in terminology, or even languages, but there are umbrella organisations, often funded by the European Union who publish overviews in English. The Inland Navigation Europe is just such a body and they provide these illustrations. There are six, or in some countries seven, class categories which apply to the various sections of waterway and the INE, based in Brussels, describes them as follows: Source Inland Navigation Europe Website. Available at: http://www.inlandnavigation.org/en/factsandfigures/fleet2/class_categories.html Over the centuries a number of different traditions have built up, with a variety of standards and measurements. In order to exploit this network the fleet is therefore correspondingly varied, with different types of vessels designed to operate on the various waterway sections, ranging from the smaller vessels of the canal systems in the north to the very large Rhine push convoys. An overview is provided here: Source: Inland Navigation Europe Website: http://www.inlandnavigation.org/en/factsandfigures/fleet2/vessel_types.html Organization of the Inland waterway transport services, and how they work together. France has a set of six separate waterways networks which are called: La Seine Le canal Dunkerque-Escaut Le Rhône et la Saône La Moselle Le Rhin La Garonne A map of the French network is provided here: Map of French waterways, source: http://www.eurocanals.com/Waterways/francewaterwaysm.html The map shows that there is a concentration of river and canal connections around Paris, and heading out from there to the north and west, where there are internationally connected sea ports. The two great arteries of the Seine and the Rhine provide the backbones of the French system, but there has been extensive work to connect up distant provinces to the capital. France has over 18,000 kilometers of waterways and at the present time over 8,500 kilometers are navigable. In the past the development of the network has been hindered because of the fragmentation of its management into different local and national ownership arrangements. In November 2004 a ways and means contract was signed (running from 2005 to 2008) between the French government and the VNF (Voies Navigables de France – French waterways authority) to enable a more targeted management and development which meets both national and local needs. Part of this strategy is to improve freight transport infrastructure and part is to extend the routes available for leisure craft use, which is an increasing area of revenue for many localities. This contract entailed a clear splitting of responsibility, entrusting the main routes, called “réseau magistral” to the state and the minor routes to the regions. (VNE waterways website) There has therefore been a clear emphasis in recent years on removing bottlenecks improving the depth of waterways, headroom, size of locks, etc. In 2001 in the Moselle region the waterways were deepened in order to increase barge load by 15%, in 2002 a new breakwater at Rhone-Sète allowed motor barges to enter the port of Sète in all weathers. Approximately 58.7 million tonnes of freight are carried on these waterways per annum, and expressed in kilometer/tonnes the trend over the last forty years or so has been mixed. Between 1970 and 1990 waterway transport declined, from 12.4 billion kilometre/tonnes to 7.2 billion kilometre/tonnes. This fell again to 5.8 kilometer tonnes between 1990 and 1995. The European and French governments have together been trying to reverse this trend, and considerable investment from private and public sources has managed to achieve a small turnaround. In 2005 the figure rose to 7.9 billion kilometre/tonnes. The growth has mainly been in container transport and chemical products, but in France the bulk of freight matches the European norm of agricultural produce and construction materials followed by much less coal, petroleum and other products. There is still a great deal of spare capacity within the French waterway system. The larger agricultural and manufacturing companies in France organize their own internal waterways shipping. Key Ports and their connections with the network : example of Le Havre. France has been slower than the Netherlands to develop an integrated system of waterways transport from its biggest seaports to the main conurbations further inland, but there has been some success in the last two decades. The two major ports of Le Havre and Marseille show the benefits of France’s ongoing waterways development: Figure 3: Containerized traffic on the Seine and the Rhône, in billion TEUs Source: Voies Navigable de France The importance of Le Havre has been gaining since 1994 thanks to the efforts of the LogiSeine company which has had annual growth of 30% since it was set up, (Frémont et al, 2009). In more recent times there has been greater interest from the international shipping companies such as the biggest three in the world, Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM who have brought their maritime expertise both to the port area and to the hinterland. The Rhine and hinterland in the Netherlands were locked up with single inland transport operators, but the situation with Le Havre and the Seine network was much more fragmented between small providers and this has allowed the maritime operators to move their influence inland. (Frément et al. 2009). This short video shows the development of the port 2000 project to modernise le Havre. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe718v_port-2000-le-havre_news The video is designed for an international audience with mostly images. The short subtitles show 2000 – site chosen 2001 – nature protection 2002 - construction of the quay, roads, sea protection 2003 – approaches foundations 2004 – more sea defences, musoirs 2005 – railway links, surrounding walls, artificial island, 2006 – entry point building The question “why” is answered by images of the huge maritime shipping companies bringing their goods into the finished harbour. The project is nearing completion and will in 2013 be a fully functioning a tri-modal terminal for rail and river connections to and from the terminals of the port of Le Havre including Port 2000 terminals. It is projected to to handle 340,000 ITU (Intermodal Transport Units) per year with the following technical specification: - a 400m long river yard equipped with two river gantries and served by rail shuttle from the sea terminals  - a 750m long railway yard equipped with 3 river gantries and served by rail shuttle from the sea terminals  - a 750m railway yard equipped with mobile cranes - a tri-modal storage area with a capacity of 4,000 containers handled by mobile cranes and straddle-carriers - a reception railway network with 12 x 750m long tracks - two connections to the port rail network - an area of reception and service premises. Details of the port’s main business areas are provided on the website: River transport to and from Le Havre, owing to more than 5 600 units, accounted for 3.90 million tons in 2009, including 35% for fuel products (coal, oil products) and chemicals. The other bulk cargo (mainly including building materials) represented 0.75 Mt. General cargo slightly decreased with 1.78 Mt of which 1,607,000 tons for containerised trades (that is more than 40% of the overall river traffic), 159,000 tons of household refuse and 12,000 tons for new motor cars. Among them, 6,200 new motor cars which went through the ro-ro terminal of the port of Le Havre in transit in 2009, were transported by river. Source: http://extrapah.havre-port.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,55187&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL The four main transport operators working in Le Havre are CFT, Mahieu (petroleum), SCAT (the small operators’ federation) and the government sponsored VNF. Container services to and from Le Havre with multimodal platforms at the following ports are provided by specific companies as follows: Limay (LOGISEINE, RSC, FLUVIOFEEDER, MSC), Gennevilliers (LOGISEINE – RSC – FLUVIOFEEDER – MSC), Bonneuil-sur-Marne (LOGISEINE), Nogent-sur-Seine (SNTC – CARLine) Gron (LOGIYONNE). Radicatel (LOGISEINE – RSC - FLUVIOFEEDER – MSC). Rouen (LOGISEINE – RSC - FLUVIOFEEDER – MSC). Source: http://extrapah.havre-port.net/portal/page?_pageid=34,55187&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL#9 Company Example 1 : Roquette (Pas de Calais Region) [NB source for this examples is the ADEME website] A specific example of an inland waterway transport service is the Roquette company which is the top producer of starch in Europe and the leading producer in the world of polyol compounds. It has two major bases in the North of France in the Pas de Calais region at Lestrem and in Beinheim and it has to transport hundreds of products across many sectors including animal husbandry, pharmacy, cosmetics, paper and textile manufacturing. Roquette has 4 factories in France, and other operations across the world including in Asia. Looking at its immediate needs in Western Europe this company developed a strategy of mixed modal transportation. Having established that 95% of its customers and suppliers in the Benelux countries had access to waterways, while most of its customers and suppliers in the south of France did not, it decided to upgrade its waterway capacity in the north and east, and set up a rail distribution system for the southern part of the business. This entailed developing the loading area to a capacity of 50 tonnes per hour and investing in a fleet of 160 meter long barges with a capacity of 350 tonnes. They accessed government grants in doing this and set a target of shifting 100,000 tonnes per year by this waterborne route. In the first 9 months of the new network, they achieved 60,000 tonnes and looked to be on or above their target. The average journey length using this means was 250 km. Company Example 2: Calcia Cement Company (Paris region) [NB source for this examples is the ADEME website] The Calcia Cement Company is a well known producer of cement for the Ile de France region around Paris which used to be called “Ciments Francais”. For many decades it has relied on it raw material cement slag (clinker) being delivered by road and rail from the Lorraine region in the east of France. The area around the capital requires around 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes of cement per annum and Calcia delivers most of this. The factory in Gargenville faced problems in the last decade because supplies of the raw material in Lorraine are drying up, and this is what forced the company to look for new supply routes. There were also issues about the company’s monopoly in central France and lack of competitiveness. Although it is well placed for road distribution of the finished product by truck, the company is not conveniently situated for rail connections. They solved their logistics problems by teaming up with another concrete company in Rouen and establishing waterway networks right up to the north coast at Dunkirk, where they could access supplies arriving from destinations across the world, notabley Greek and Turkish clinker. This relieved them of their dependence on a single and failing supply, and opened up new trading possibilities to the west and north. Company Example 4. Detailed multi-modal example: Sainte-Saulve Steel Works at Vallourec. [NB source for this examples is the ADEME website] The Sainte-Saulve Steel Works supplies steel to French and German factories which used to depend on truck deliveries with internal storage facilities of 2,600 square meters and an external storage area of 45,000 square meters, and truck transport between the two. The company decided to revisit all of its logistical plans, and it now has an innovative delivery/storage/dispatch area constructed on a long strip of land adjoining the Escaut canal. The facilities in this area are designed for multiple activities and include: 3 hoists, 5 lifter bucket machines, 1 push unit, 1 bobcat for cleaning the barges 5 lifters on tracks with a capacity of 50 – 60 tonnes Radioactivity detection systems at the entry points A cutting and filtration workshop Sludge and oil removal facility. There is also a specially long quay of 250 meters which can service 2 long barges of 1200-1500 tonnes at the same time. This is essential because the factory uses between 2500 and 3000 tonnes of raw material per day. Truck and rail access right up to the quay allows swift transfer between the different modes and as a result of this new site being in operation the proportion of the waterway mode of transport for this company has risen to 20%, which means considerably less reliance on trucks. Besides those transport systems which are integrated within companies, there is also a very large fleet of “artisan bateliers” who are barge owners and their crews working as freelancers on contracts and subcontracts with a very diverse network of companies. According to their “Entreprendre pour le Fluvial” [Enterprise for the wateways] website, this group transports 60% of all freight carried on French waterways. Figures on this dispersed workforce are very hard to establish, however, and so this may be an exaggeration. There are however, a few established companies who specialize in transport, including; CFNR (Compagnie Française de Navigation Rhénane) which operates in the North East. Vopak AMT France SAS which operates between Dunkirk and Roissy CMA CGM which is a large company linking the ports of Le Havre and Dunkirk with Belgium Company Example 5 Multi Modal Collaboration: Compagnie Fluvial Transport (CFT) [NB example details are taken from the CFT website] One umbrella organization called CFT (Compagnie Fluvial Transport) is a collaboration between several regional and specialist organizations which gives an almost nationwide service. This company had a turnover of some 280 million euros in 2008 and a workforce of 650 with a fleet of 200 vessels. One example of their service is to transport liquid and gas tanker units from the port of Le Havre to destinations as far apart as Nantes, Lille and Strasbourg using its affiliate company CLT (Compagnie Ligérienne de Transport). They also run two barges of 2,000 tonnes each carrying heavy cement (clinker) products along the Seine, and equipped so that they can deliver fractional loads at each stop, thus maximising their flexibility along the ports of the Seine. There has been roll on roll off transportation of parts for space rockets which were manufactured in Mureauz (Yvelines area near Paris) and taken by water to Le Havre, from where they are shipped out to Guyana. From there trucks take the recovered materials to local factories. The company specializes in liquid transports, including dangerous chemicals like benzene, methanol and paraffin, as well as food oils. The units used have all the necessary safety provisions like isolated storage, indicators, double hulls, etc. Cereals, coal and steel products are also transported by CTF. Household waste from the area round Le Havre is picked up by truck and compressed, then it is taken to barges in the harbour and transported by CFT to its terminal at Radicatel, where it is reprocessed. This Seine port has a 410 m. public wharf with a fixed access ramp, and a private ro-ro berth, draughts up to 11.5m, a private gantry crane for containers and 14 hectares of backup areas. Separate areas for grain, sugar, waste etc are provided. A map of the port is shown below, with mention of the refineries, factories and road connections: source: http://www.portofrouen.com/port-jerome-and-radicatel-terminals,12881,en.html Future plans The current state of the waterways in France is not perfect, but co-operation between regional governments, private companies and the European Community funding bodies, for example the Marco Polo Programme which has the aim of moving freight off the roads, has resulted in a number of initiatives to improve all aspects of the infrastructure. Once again the focus for France is mainly in the northern areas. Lowe (2005, p. 58) notes that “in the hinterland of the largest seaports of the EU the modal share of inland waterway transport can reach as high as 43 per cent.” There are plans to develop the “missing link” between the North East network and the Seine based network, which would ultimately create a navigable route for large scale vessels all the way from Paris to Amsterdam. It remains to be seen whether this will be fully funded by its target completion date of 2020. The dotted line on the illustration shows the part which still remains to be built: The proposed new Seine-Nord-Europe canal planned for completion in 2020. Source: project website at http://www.seine-nord-europe.com/ © INE modifiée. References ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie). Transfert modal de marchandises: Six Opérations Exemplaires A Suivre. Agency publication retrieved from website (ref no 5217) at: http://www2.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?sort=-1&cid=96&m=3&catid=16309 ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie) and VNF (Voies Navigables de France) Transport des Déchets: La Solution Fluviale. Agency publication retrieved from website (ref no 4187) at: http://www2.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?sort=-1&cid=96&m=3&catid=16309 Canal Seine-Nord ProjectWebsite. Available at: http://www.seine-nord-europe.com/ Compagnie Fluvial de Transport (CFT) website. Retrieved from: http://www.cft.fr/index.php?mod=1&ray=9&cat=1&num=9&aff=pix&typo=ray Compton, Gerald. The Tortoise and the Economy: Inland Waterway Navigation in International Economic History” The Journal of Transport History 25 (2) (2004), 1ff. Entreprendre pour le Fluvial. Website for independent barge owners. Retrieved from: http://www.entreprendre-fluvial.com/fiche-metier-artisan-batelier.html Frémont, Antoine, Franc, Pierre and Slack, Brian. “Inland barge services and container transport: the case of the ports of Le Havre and Marseille in the European context.” Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography, Article 437. February 2009. Retrieved from: http://cybergeo.revues.org/index21743.html Inland Navigation Europe website. Available at: http://www.inlandnavigation.org/en/factsandfigures/statistics/inland_shipping_by_commodity.html Le Havre news video. Available at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xe718v_port-2000-le-havre_news Lowe, David. Intermodal Freight Transport. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. Roquette Company Website. Available at: http://www.roquette.com/ Voies Navigables d’Europe- European waterways website. Available at: http://www.vne-waterways.eu/ Voies Navigables de France – French waterways authority website. 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