LE HAVRE TO AWARD PRIVATE PORT CONCESSIONS THIS SUMMER

LE HAVRE TO AWARD PRIVATE PORT CONCESSIONS THIS SUMMER    The port authority of Le Havre will award container terminal concessions to private-sector shipping lines or terminal operators this summer.
   Ten shipping or port companies have sent formal “expressions of interest” to run container terminals under the Port 2000 expansion program, Jean-Pierre Lecomte, chairman of Port Authority of Le Havre, told a press conference in London.
   The Port 2000 plan, already commenced, will add four container berths in 2004 and another two in about 2006. The program will double the container handling capacity of the French port to about 3 million TEUs.
   Lecomte said that Maersk Sealand, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM are among the 10 bidders to operate the new container terminals, but would not disclose the identity of the seven other interested companies. Bidders other than Maersk Sealand, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM did not provide “the same sort of proposals,” Lecomte said.
   Patrick Deshayes, secretary general of the CGT workers’ union in Le Havre, who has traveled with the management of the port to promote the port of Le Havre, said that his union “has no problems” with private-sector operators.
   “We cooperate with the port authority,” Deshayes said. “There is work done on consultation.”
   The dockworkers’ unions said that relations with port management in Le Havre are now much less confrontational than in the past.
   The private-sector bidders for the container terminal concessions were asked to provide guarantees of cargo volumes as part of their bids, and will be expected to invest in terminal equipment and computer systems.
   The decision on the winning bidders could be made as early as at the end of June, when the port authority will have a board meeting.