Chantier Naval De Marseille News

French cargo and cruise port Marseille Fos had a relatively stable year in 2018 with traffic of more than 81 million tonnes, up 1%.The performances included a seventh consecutive year of growth in container traffic, which rose 2% for 1.4 million teu, and a 12% increase in dry bulks at 15.2MT. Meanwhile cruise numbers leapt 15% to 1.7 million passengers.Infrastructure development and maintenance spending of €60 million featured further logistics park expansion. Alongside this, agreements were reached on major industrial implantations. The 2019 capex budget of €85m has earmarked €58m for development projects. These include ongoing work to link the two Fos container terminals via a quay extension, which is due for handover in April 2020.

Costa Group – part of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise company – announced that its new generation ships, the first LNG powered at sea, will call Marseille in 2019. The Costa Group, the leading tourism group, the No. 1 cruiser in Europe has renovated its commitment to Port of Marseille through different initiatives that began in 1996 when the new cruise called “La Dolce Vita” started its weekly operations from Marseille to offer the French guests every Saturday a brand new and unique experience in the best places of the Mediterranean onboard its ship Costa Romantica. This new offer launched by Costa contributed to the French people being more and more interested in experiencing a cruise vacation.

The Marseilles Fos port authority said it is targeting mid-2015 to complete the €28 million renovation of its giant drydock 10 to provide a strategically located base for cruise ship repair and maintenance. At 465 meters long and 85 metrs wide - the third biggest in the world after Lisbon and Dubai – the drydock will offer a unique facility for the latest-generation fleet in the Mediterranean, where 65% of the world’s largest cruise vessels operate. These include ships of up to 360 meters that currently call at Marseilles.

The Marseilles Fos port authority is launching a tender for the use of its drydock No.10 – the largest in the Mediterranean – as a repair facility for the latest generation cruise ships, container carriers and tankers. The winning bidder is due to be selected by the end of the year and will be expected to demonstrate recent experience of handling ships more than 250 meters long. Dock 10 is 465m long and 85m wide, making it capable of accepting the 360m-long containerships now frequenting the port. Cruise ships of more than 330m have also become regular callers. With 65% of the world fleet of large cruise vessels concentrated in the Mediterranean – and no comparable facility in the vicinity – the port authority sees cruise sector repairs as another key market sector. The No.