Marseilles Fos total volumes up but box volumes lag

The overall improvement came as general cargo dropped 11% to 11.68m tonnes – largely due to industrial action from April to June over the French government’s port reform proposals. Container volumes finished 17% down for January-September at 619,842 teu. Conventional trades fell 9% to around 2m tonnes, although ro-ro traffic was up 4% at 3.4m tonnes.

Marseilles Fos is to invite tenders for the installation of a solar-powered electricity network with the potential for up to four generating stations and solar panels on more than 135,000 sq m of roof space – which would be the largest such area in France if fully implemented.

The scheme, costing from EUR20-60m envisages the possibility of three generating centres in Marseilles and one in Fos, with total output capacity of 8-18MW.