Port of Le Havre

The port of Le Havre is a seaport French of trade, pleasure and fishing of the Manche.

Located at the Harbor, it was created in 1517 under the order of François 1st at the request of an elite Norman (mainly of Rouen and Caen) considering it necessary for their area to obtain from a new port. The construction of this port is at the origin of the foundation of the city of Le Havre.

Located at the mouth of the Seine, it benefits from a geographical location which enables him to become one of the large European ports to serve the continent of Europe.

The port of Le Havre is the first French port for the foreign trade with nearly 60 million tons of traffic per annum.

Description

Basins

August 1st

Basin the Commercial

Located inside the Downtown area rebuilt of Le Havre.

Basin of the King

Basin of the Citadel

Basin of the Bar

Basin Vauban

Located close to the entry of the city and surrounded of the railway station, the Chamber of commerce and Industry and of the future shopping mall of the docks, it is the first basin that the people of passage in Le Havre can observe.

Basin Paul Vatine

Old Basin of the Docks, it was famous by the municipality of Le Havre in the honor of Paul Vatine. The basin shelters from now on the ships of the Transat Jacques Vabre which is held every two years.

Marina

August 1st Created in 1934, the marina of Le Havre, installed in the West of the Port of Le Havre, is the first marina of the continental English Channel with a capacity of 1300 places.

Point of Florida

August 1st The point of Florida, where is installed new the pole cruising of Le Havre in Hangar 1, is located at the West between the Basin of the English Channel and the Basin Theophilus Ducrocq.

It became the place of predilection for the croisierists with 50 stopovers organized in 2007 with large steamers of cruisings such as the Jewel off the Seas, the Millennum, the Star Princess, and the Queen Mary 2.

History

Creation of the port

As of 1515, an elite Norman, mainly of Rouen and Caen, estimates that the Normandy needs a new port because of the silting of the ports of Harfleur and of Honfleur.

With Paris, the creation of a new military port is wished. End 1516, François Ier receives the report/ratio which he had asked notable Marine, which determines the most favourable places for “ to establish by on this side in its Duché of Normandy a city and a seaport ”.

February 7th, 1517, in Paris, François Ier addresses the following letter in Bonnivet, Admiral de France: “… like holding in seureté the ships and vaissaulx of us and noz subjects navigans on the sea Océane, made sercher in the coste of Normandy and Pays of Caux suitable sor place and us ayt esté reported by you and notable personnaiges in this test and entenduz that the place of Grace is cleanest and easiest of stable-lad. coste and country of Caux, to make harbor to which lesd. ships and vaissaulx can easily arrive and seurement to remain, and make make led. harbor in the form which it belongs… let us have you for these causes and others consideracions with this mouvans, made us, ordered and députté, commectons, and give and appoint general police chief for construction dud. harbor and fortification necessary for seureté of icelluy by these present… ”.

February 12th, 1517, Bonnivet charged Guyon Roy with this mission, by taking again the same terms of the letter of the king. February 22nd, 1517, Guyon requires of Mr. de Blosseville, captain of the coasts of Normandy, to call the Masters Maçon S and other workmen of Normandy to the adjudication of work which must take place with Harfleur.

Work included/understood:

the construction of piers and two turns to protect the future Basin from the King.
the construction of a dock.
the digging of a channel towards the port of Harfleur.

Work began in April 1517 and finished in 1524. The channel, it, were only dug in the years 1600.

A dubious port

From 1560, the port is mainly used by the sinners of Morue and will durably remain it because of a reduction of the rights on the arrival of cods and the Hareng S on behalf of the king in 1603. The military activity is very weak there until in 1627 with the creation of a Arsenal by Richelieu.

The activity declines then following the wars, of the English occupation and also of the threat of the Corsaire S starting from 1590.

Whereas the village of Le Havre is radically changed during the 16th century, the port, it, will not have been modified. Thus the installations of the port could only " to be used as abris" with the boats which, as of the left high tide, were envasaient in the basins.

Port authority

The port authority of Le Havre is a public corporation which jointly exerts public service missions administrative and public service missions related to commercial industrial and which is managed like a public corporation related to commercial industrial and (EPIC). It is in charge of the management of the whole of the harbor installations of its district. It is of the second Port commercial of France in term of total tonnage.

It forms part, with the wearing of Bordeaux, of the two port authorities created at the time of the first law of autonomy of the ports in 1920. This mode, obviously, was preserved at the time of the second law of autonomy in 1965.

The port is composed of a series of basins, Canal of Tancarville and Grand channel of Le Havre, connecting the port to the Seine. The port also includes/understands the oil terminal of Antifer located between Le Havre and Etretat.

An extension of the port, called " Port 2000" is in the course of work.

Port 2000

Port 2000 indicates a large harbor building site started in 2001 to increase the capacity of reception of the Porte-conteneurs to the Havre. The project was supplemented and inaugurated the March 30th 2006.

The itself project was conceived starting from 1995 but its approval only in 1999 received.

The first terminal in activity, the terminal of France includes/understands 1,4 km of quays and four stations of unloading and can receive the largest container ships of the world, it is exploited by the GMP (General of Harbor Handling) which has as a customer the ships of CMA-CGM. The terminal Porte Océane will be exploited by TN (Final of Normandy) for the ships of Maersk and will enter in activity at the end of 2007.

The complete project includes/understands 4,2 km of quay and twelve stations of unloading. It falls under a policy of town and country planning. Intended to counter the competition of the ports of the north of Europe, Port 2000 is also an example of Sustainable development since concerning the birds was arranged.

Impact of Port 2000 on the environment

The new installations of Port 2000 were established on the territory of the Estuaire of the Seine. Defense associations of environment (S.O.S Estuary…) denounce the ecological problems posed by installations. The estuary of the Seine is a natural site of first order, classified Natural reserve since 1997. It is protected by the labels " Special Protection zone " and " Natura 2000 ". The Vasière S accommodate many birds (curlew ashy, tadornes of Belon oyster, ducks mallards, large cormorants, Héron S ashed, knights harlequins, Avocette S, spangled bitterns…). The ecologist organizations stress that the enlarging of the port of Le Havre towards the south bad temper natural spaces (the estuary narrowed of two kilometers) and threaten the ecosystem: thus, the Norman ornithological grouping estimates that the water birds passed from 40 000 in 2000 with 25 000 in 2005. A site of 40 hectares is from now on reserved for the port activities and from many mudholes disappeared. However, the port authority of Le Havre puts forward the taking into account of the ecological stakes in its project. Several installations were undertaken to compensate for the damage on the natural environments estuarien: a Méandre of approximately 15 hectares was dug to improve circulation of water and to create new mudholes. An artificial small island of five hectares to low tide was assembled with 260 000 cubic meters of rollers and sand, protected by ripraps. On the whole, the port of Le Havre spent 46 million euros to preserve the natural heritage of the zone.

Future

Port 2020

August 1st

Statistics

The port of Le Havre is, in total tonnage, the second French port and the fifth of Europe on the level of the traffic with 74 million handled tons. In 2005, 6.965 ships used the port of Le Havre.

It is the most important wearing of containers of France with 2.1 million EVP handled in 2006, that is to say 60% of the French traffic of containers. Moreover 40% of oils and oils entering to France pass by Le Havre.

Traffic of the port of Le Havre (in tons per annum):

Sources

General references

Natalie Castetz, “In Le Havre, Port 2000 upsets the estuary”, in Libération of June 12th, 2006.
Aude Sérès, the port of Le Havre returns in the race , Le Figaro, March 30th, 2006
A. Corvisier, “the history of Le Havre”.
Academy of Rouen: Visit port of Le Havre

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