Marseille Port Completes Blockchain Trial
The Port of Marseille Fos (Grand Port Maritime de Marseille; GPMM) has just completed a blockchain pilot scheme to enhanced efficiencies at France’s largest seaport.The focus of the project for freight transportation on the Mediterranean-Rhone-Saone (MeRS) corridor is to run a trial to evaluate the security of the digital transport chain. It will involve applying blockchain technology to supply chain logistics and freight forwarding, particularly where goods are transported in multiple ways such as sea and road.Results from trials held over recent months have now been reviewed at a meeting hosted by the port and demonstrated that harmonization of the digital transport chain improved fluidity…
Partners Sign Up for Marseilles Intermodal Project
Six partners led by the Marseilles Fos port authority have formed the Mourepiane combined transport terminal company (MTTC) to help finance and manage construction of the port’s long-planned intermodal upgrade development in the Marseilles harbor area. The €60.5 million project will create a high-performance base improving links and pre/post-dispatch handling between Mourepiane container terminal and the adjacent railhead. The new facility will also serve other Marseilles quays, with their current multimodal site at Canet being transferred to the Euromediterranee urban renewal scheme. Construction will start in summer 2015. The terminal is due on stream in mid-2017 and will be operated by a purpose-formed company of Marseilles and France-based multimodal specialists.
Veolia Strategy At Sea Over France-Corsica Ferry Stalemate
Veolia Environnement, a global leader in water and waste management, has a little local difficulty: an ailing France-Corsica ferry operator that weighs on its shares, gives its CEO nightmares and puts the brakes on its strategic plans. At the end of 2012, new Chief Executive Antoine Frerot decided to get out of transport to focus Veolia on its higher-margin water, waste andenergy businesses, and agreed with state-owned Caisse des Depots (CDC) that it would gradually stake over Veolia's stake in their joint venture Transdev, which runs trains, buses and taxis in about 20 countries. CDC had one condition - that Veolia keep Transdev's 66 percent stake in Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee (SNCM), a loss-making ferry operator that once had a monopoly on France-Corsica routes.
Baja Ferries Hopes to Buy SNCM
Mexican ferry company Baja Ferries said on Tuesday it hopes to close a deal to buy troubled French ferry operator SNCM before November or December. SNCM (Societé Nationale Corse-Méditerranée), which runs routes from cities on France's Mediterranean coast to Corsica and northern Africa, has accrued losses of about 250 million euros ($340.38 million) from 2001 to 2013. In May, Baja said it was in talks with French transport firm Transdev about buying its 66 percent stake in SNCM.
Veolia Retakes Control of Corsica Ferry Company
The board of France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM on Monday voted out its chief executive who had sided with trade unions, allowing shareholder Veolia to retake control and restructure the loss-making firm. Veolia wants to put Societe Nationale Corse Mediterranee under court protection to shield it from a European Commission order to repay 440 million euros ($605 million) of state aid and is looking for a buyer of a restructured SNCM. Transport firm Transdev - itself a 50-50 joint venture between Veolia and state-backed Caisse des Depots (CDC) - owns 66 percent of SNCM but Transdev has not been able to impose its will at SNCM because the ferry company's chief executive and board chairman have sided with its unions and ignored instructions of their employer.
Struggling SNCM Ferry Operator to Order 4 Ships
Reuters - Loss-making France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM, which is partly owned by French water and waste group Veolia Environnement, plans to order four new ships, an SNCM spokesman said on Friday. The spokesman said the board had approved deals for four new ferries, two of them firm orders and two of them purchase options, to renew the fleet as part of a restructuring plan for the firm. He did not provide details on the vote or explain how the ferry operator plans to finance the purchases, with each ship estimated to cost 150 million to 170 million euros.
Greenfield Fund Takes Stake in German Wind Farm
The Marguerite Fund has acquired a 22.5% stake in the German greenfield Butendiek offshore wind farm. The Butendiek project is a 288 MW greenfield offshore wind farm located in the North-Sea in the German exclusive economic zone, 32 km west of the German Island of Sylt, and consisting of 80 Siemens 3.6 MW wind turbines. The start of the offshore construction works is scheduled for Spring 2014 and installation of the wind turbines is planned to take place between Autumn 2014 and Summer 2015. When commissioned the wind farm will produce 1,290 GWh p.a., enough to supply the equivalent of some 370,000 households with electricity each year. The cost of the project is estimated to be €1.3bn.
