HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TERMINAL ORGANISATION FOR PORT 2000

October 2001 : Publication of an international communiqué inviting companies or groups interested in the operation of the terminals in Port 2000 to make themselves known.

June 21, 2002 : The Board of Directors of the Port of Le Havre Authority recorded the 3 applications by the following groups:

•  TN (Terminaux de Normandie) and MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company)
•  GMP (Générale de Manutention Portuaire) and CMA-CGM
•  Perrigault and MAERSK

Memoranda of intent were then signed by the partners with the Port of Le Havre Authority.

November 2002 :  Set-up of the GStrategic Group on the modernisation of the Le Havre container terminals, , chaired by the Chairman of the Port of Le Havre Authority, with the participation of the port user’s association (UMEP) and the Chairman of the Goods Handling Group (GEMO). On March 7, 2003 the work of the group resulted in a project of local solution of Le Havre companies, the fundamental principles of which were submitted to the Board of directors of the Port of Le Havre Authority.

Operating the Port 2000 container terminals is entrusted to private operators within the framework of a Terminal Operating Agreement. The operator will be fully responsible for the organisation and operation of its terminal. Each operator si backed by a shipping line and can then commit itself to traffic volume.

Contracts for the supply of operational personnel as well as operation and maintenance support services have been proposed by the Port of Le Havre Authority to the involved operators : TNMSC (in Bougainville, in first phase and then in Port 2000 later on), GMP / CMA-CGM in Port 2000 and TPO (Terminal de la Porte Océane = Perrigault and Maersk) in Port 2000. These contracts have been drafted on the basis of the fundamental principles of the organisation, validated by the Board of Directors of the Port of Le Havre Authority during its meeting of April 4, 2003.

Board Meeting of the Port of Le Havre Authority on April 4, 2003 :  The fundamental principles of the future organisation clearly stipulate the full and entire responsibility of the terminal operator for the organisation and the operation of its terminal.

The latter will be especially responsible for :
•  the developments necessary to containership loading and unloading,
•  the management and operation of the container yard with its road and rail interfacing,
•  - the full equipment of the terminal (tooling, data-processing, …).

In terms of gantry-crane driving and control :

•  On the operational level, during each port call by a ship, it has sole command of the gantry-crane operators and the dockers,
•  It selects the manpower required in terms of gantry-crane operators to cope with the traffic,
•  It manages the daily allocation of this work force as and when the ships arrive.

In terms of the machines

•  It freely defines its investments in tooling and equipment,
•  It has full command and control of the maintenance policy for its gantries, by carrying out the maintenance engineering itself,
•  IIt can entrust maintenance operations to the Port of Le Havre Authority, in accordance with the principles of competitiveness and transparency.

On October 28, 2004, the Générale de Manutention Portuaire (GMP) and the Port of Le Havre Authority (PAH) signed the first Terminal Operating Agreement for Port 2000 in the presence of P&O Ports, CMA CGM, and Féron de Clebsattel.

The Terminal Operating Agreement governs the relations between the port authority and the operator, based on a series of mutual commitments. In Le Havre, parallel to this document, contracts for the supply of operational personnel as well as operation and maintenance support services have been drafted based on the fundamental principles of the organisation, validated at the Board meeting of the Port of Le Havre Authority on April 4, 2003.

GMP - which belongs to the leading French goods handling group PORTSYNERGY - will be the first operator to set up on Port 2000. With traffic up to 480,000 containers handled in 2003, GMP currently operates the Europe and Americas quays on the north terminals. Together with its partner CMA CGM, the goods handling company now wants to develop on Port 2000. The first phase of the GMP development scheme involves a surface area of 46 hectares, equipped quayside with 6 super post-panamax gantries of ZPMC make.

Other operators have already invested in the area of Port 2000. This has especially resulted in the signing of a Terminal Operating Agreement between PAH and TNMSC on July 12, 2004, for a first phase of development at the quai Bougainville. Investments in new tools have to be added to this ; in 2004, 3 new ZPMC container gantry cranes were put into operation for TNMSC, completed by 2 Reggiane gantry cranes purchased by the Port of Le Havre Authority. In 2005, these tools will be completed by 2 other ZPMC gantry cranes for TNMSC, arrived in December 2004.