Jul.30--THE French Port of Marseilles Fos handled 520,132 TEU in the first half of the year, an increase of 14 per cent over the same period last year, while the twin ports' overall tonnage fell because of shrinking oil volume.

Container throughout was fuelled by a 58 per cent hike in trade with the Americas, a 10 per cent increase in Mediterranean trade and an increase of 8.6 per cent in trade with Asia.

Container volume at the Fos container terminals rose 18 per cent to 400,000 TEU, and the Marseilles terminal volume increased two per cent to 120,000 TEU.

Meanwhile, the port's supervisory board announced the selection of a consortium of four companies to develop and operate a combined transport hub alongside the Med Europe container terminal near the Marseilles harbour, according to media reports.

The port agency awarded the transport hub contract to a group consisting of Progenor, a Credit Agricole subsidiary specialising in multimodal platform projects and three of the port's established transport providers - CMA Rail, T3M and SNCF Geodis subsidiary Naviland Cargo.

The facility, estimated to cost US$73 million, will provide a single rail-road interface that serves Mediterranean-Europe container trades and also traffic displaced from a smaller combined transport terminal that is being redeveloped under the Euromediterranee urban renovation scheme.

The new hub will be able to handle 150,000 containers annually, doubling capacity for rail borne traffic in the Marseilles port zone and helping to reduce the current 85 per cent balance of containers transported by road.

Investment in the 25-acre site will include the lengthening of rail lines, road improvements, construction of a container depot and the purchase of railhead gantry cranes.

Negotiations on co-financing and the operating agreement are under way and due to be completed by the end of the year.

(Source:shippingazette)