Ports of Chennai, Kamarajar and Katupalli can take a cue from Haropa — ports of Le Harve, Rouen and Paris — on how three competing ports located proximally can come together to serve the trade.
“The three ports have their own strengths. But, we complement each other, not compete,” said Herve Martel, CEO, Le Havre Port Authority, who was in Chennai as part of a promotional roadshow.
SimilaritiesThere are many similarities between Haropa — an acronym formed from the names of the three ports — and the three ports in Chennai. “We would be more than happy to share our experience on issues like port connectivity systems, IT systems and Customs that are common for the three French ports. We are talking to port authorities on how we can assist them,” he told newspersons here on Tuesday.
Haropa is a joint venture formed in 2012 to build a European-sized port system in the field of industry, logistics and tourism dedicated to its customers. However, the major bottleneck in emulating the Haropa model here is that the Chennai and Kamarajar ports are government-runwhile Katupalli is a private port, said an official of a large shipping line at the event.
Being the largest French port system with 87.1 million tonnes of sea cargo traffic and more than 20.2 million tonnes of river traffic in 2016, Haropa ranks fifth on the northern range. The combined strength of the three ports is a total quay length of around 6 km and a handling capacity of around 92 million tonnes, which can be expanded three times. “There is no limitation in handling cargo for us. There is no congestion at the ports unlike competing ports in Europe,” said Martel.
Martel urged companies in India to use Haropa as the first port of call for their distribution across Europe. There are over 1,000 French subsidiaries, including Sanofi, Arkema, Dassault, Alstom and Total, in India. Maritime trade between India and Haropa grew by 7 per cent to 43,967 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2016. “We expect a double-digit growth going forward,” he said.