HAROPA PORT said maritime container traffic at the gateway reached 1.25 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at the end of June, or 11.77 metric tons (Mt).
The French port complex noted that in tonnage, the numbers shrank by 16.7%. It added that full container inland traffic was down 8.6% overall, representing a 6.8% drop in imports and a 12.4% decline in exports.
"Against the backdrop of a general decline in maritime container traffic impacted by the national social movement linked to pension reform, traffic through HAROPA PORT is now showing a gradual upturn," HAROPA Port said in a statement.
It noted that the uptrend is "driven by a good cereal campaign", with 8.5Mt of cereals exported in 2022-2023 and expanding passenger traffic.
HAROPA Port said it was also able to maintain its market share in the first quarter of the year in a context marked by a downturn of over 12% in Europe in the first months where container traffic is concerned.
"Maritime traffic stood at 38.59Mt of goods as of the end of June 2023, down -8.3% compared with 2022," the French gateway — one of the busiest in Europe — said, adding that the fall in liquid bulk (-4,6 %) was accompanied by a substantial +5.5% increase in refined products.
It said that dry bulk traffic registered an increase of 0.3%, featuring a positive dynamic in the cereals segment with a 2022-2023 campaign racking up 8.27Mt (+12.9%) and aggregates going to the construction market showing a major rise of almost 11.5%, up by +104kt as of end June 2023.
Meanwhile, HAROPA said despite the decline in maritime container traffic, "it is worth noting" that river traffic in containers turned in a good performance at 12,834 TEU carried, with a 19% increase in goods handled by Paris Terminal SA at Gennevilliers by June 2023 compared with 2022.
Ferry traffic remained negative as of the end of June 2023, with freight vehicle traffic down by -45%.
Maritime traffic in vehicles going through the ro-ro terminal failed to show any continuous trend, with some months registering peaks of activity and others a fall. HAROPA said overall, it remained unchanged from 2022, with a throughput of 130,000 vehicles.
Best maritime export campaign
HAROPA Port noted that the latest cereal campaign — which run from July 1 to June 30 the following year — had shown the third-best maritime export campaign achieved by the port of Rouen since the early 1990s.
It said that the final figure for exports was up by +10.4% compared with the preceding campaign.
"At 8.5Mt, HAROPA PORT accounts in total for 52% of all French cereals exports during the 2022-2023 campaign. It should be noted that at 3.5Mt, the Maghreb is the leading export destination for French cereals leaving Rouen," the French gateway added.
It said that the countries of West Africa made a remarkable comeback at 0.98Mt, a figure more than double that for the preceding campaign, which was held back by the disappointing quality of French wheat.
"In this difficult context, HAROPA PORT has kept its position as a logistics and industrial hub and enhanced its attractiveness with a continuation of major investments along the Seine Axis, such as that made by MSC-TiL, which has been raised from €700 million to €900 million," the port complex added.
In 2023, HAROPA PORT completed the construction work and delivered an additional 700 metres of dock span for berths 11 and 12 at Port 2000, representing an investment of €152 million.
Additionally, following the signing of port land occupation agreements, HAROPA PORT has allocated 24 hectares to ENGIE for the development of a reference platform for novel industrial activities relating to alternative fuels.
It said that the combined projects of SALAMANDRE and France KerEAUzen would produce, using biomass and local non-recyclable waste, not only synthetic methane for maritime transport as a replacement for fossil fuel but also e-kerosene as a synthetic aviation fuel based on a combination of renewable hydrogen and CO₂.
The planned investment is over one billion euros.