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Issue4 2013 Ports press on with spending plans


It’s an uncertain time for the ro ro trade. New emissions regulations could make a large chunk of the current fleet redundant from 2015, and lead to an unwelcome surge in costs. But ports like Dover and Calais are still spending big bucks on infrastructure.


///RO RO


Calais on the brink of major growth


Work is poised to begin on the Calais Port 2015 project to enlarge France and Continental Europe’s largest ro ro port, said the chamber


of commerce’s maritime chief Antoine Ravisse. He told a press conference in London on 17 April that all state and local permits


should be in place by June and that work on the scheme to enlarge Calais should start next year, with completion of the


physical infrastructure expected in about 2017. The plan has been a long time


coming; Calais’ last significant enlargement was back in 1990 and, as Ravisse says, the port has become too small for today’s traffic levels of around 1.5 million trucks a year on 50 ferry departures per day, plus cars and coaches. The €400 million Port 2015


scheme envisages construction of a new jetty stretching out into the Channel. Inside that, land will be reclaimed from the sea which will be used to create 90 hectares of new jetties for ferries, including much larger next-generation ones. The port has ambitions to break into the general cargo market to a much greater extent – today


it handles a limited amount of project cargo, bagged and bulk traffic – though not large container ships. The entrance channel will be deepened from 12 to 13 metres. Didier Caudard-Breille, group


president of French property firm DCB International, said that the linked Calais Premier logistics centre was also “a very important development”. At 160 hectares it was, he said, virtually the last significant piece of logistics land leſt in the region. At around €46- 48 per sq m (€4.28-4.46 per sq ſt), rent levels will be very competitive with UK prices, Breille believes. He said that one major international firm was already interested in taking space in the development. Calais


Premier will also


incorporate a novel road rail transfer terminal developed by German company Cargobeamer that would drastically speed up shiſting of road trailers to rail wagons and vice-versa. The system works by using a moveable platform or pallet in addition to the rail wagon. When the truck driver drops a trailer at the intermodal terminal, it is put on the platform, which in turn is then moved onto the rail wagon. It has the advantage over conventional piggyback systems that the rail wagons do not actually have to be present when the trailer is dropped off, and it is also much faster than using cranes, capable of swapping a complete trainload within 15 minutes.


Dover weathers the economic storm


Dover’s freight traffic is looking quite lively, says chief operating officer and acting chief executive, Tim Waggott. Freight through the port increased by 6.7% to almost 519,000 units in the first quarter of 2013 over Q1 2012, while rival Eurotunnel’s volumes showed a 9% decrease. (The latter could have been due to the start up of Eurotunnel’s own MyFerryLink service from Dover to Calais.) Overall, says Waggott, traffic on


the short-straits route (essentially, now


Dover-Calais and the


Tunnel) is growing at around 1%. He comments: “As the economy returns to growth, that at Dover tends to outstrip the economy as a whole.” Dover’s


ferry operators, he


added, “have weathered the economic storm and the strong competition from Eurotunnel, providing


greater


capacity.” Dover’s plans for a ‘Terminal


2’ in the Western Docks are on hold, but work is going ahead on replacing and refurbishing berths in the main operational area, Eastern Docks. Heavy refurbishment work on No. 3 berth has been completed and a completely new No. 6 berth is being built, ready to be floated into position. Refurbishment of No. 2 and 7 berths will take place in 2014 and 2015. The new and enlarged berths


choice and


will help Dover handle the new large Spirit of Britain and France ferries that have been recently introduced and, while no other operators currently have plans to introduce similar-sized ships, the trend is towards bigger and longer, Waggott points out. The Terminal 2 plans are currently on hold, but should


the green light be given, much of the planning


and groundwork,


including the all-important Harbour Revision Order, are already in place, and it is still part of the port’s master plan, he adds: “Terminal 2 is growth- dependent, which is why we are revisiting Eastern Docks with an £85 million investment.” Meanwhile, Dover is tweaking


its operational areas to ensure that freight flows as smoothly as possible. The in-house Freight Clearance operation has been sold to Motis, which is now converting part of the area to longer-term lorry parking. As part of the Eastern Docks refurbishment, Dover Harbour Board itself is creating the equivalent of 4 kilometres of lorry holding area which will help reduce congestion and help prevent problems with one ferry operator having a knock-on effect.


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