The Mississippi Valley Trade & Transport Council

Haropa success in strategic trades

(Posted on 11/09/18)

In a context in which HAROPA seaborne traffic globally remains stable, at 45.8 M tonnes, the first six months of 2018 were marked by very good figures for highly strategic trades.

The market share of HAROPA for the export of wheat and barley produced in France (2017-2018 season) reached a record level of 50%, with 75% traffic growth against the previous season.

Seaborne traffic of aggregates, sands and gravels strongly rose by 55%, regarding this trade, river traffic recovered after the period of strong rise in the water level with 7.5 M tonnes; Maritime container traffic posted an all-time high figure to the hinterland with a total of more than 1 million TEU that is +1.1% against first half of 2017. Sea “Ro-Ro” trade confirmed continuous growth with 157,000 vehicles that is +2% ;

All cereals counted together, the terminals of the Port of Rouen operated 7 million tonnes in the course of the 2017-2018 season, that is a 75 % rise compared to last year. This figure confirms the competitiveness of the port of Rouen which handles about 50% of the French exports of wheat and barley. The new 2018-2019 season should confirm this good positioning in terms of market shares. The river traffic of cereals in the Ile-de- France region actually rose by 22.5% connected for the major part with the supply of the port of Rouen.

In aggregates, sand and gravel sea traffic rose by 55%, with 900,000 tonnes: it is boosted by the re-start of the Paris area and Normandy building sector. On this very trade, river traffic significantly recovered as from the month of April with 7.5 MT after a beginning of the year strongly impacted by the period of strong rise in the river water level (-2% at end of June against -16% at end of March).