EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive and Jean-Claude Terrier, Managing Director of Grand port maritime de Marseille (GPMM), have signed a financing agreement for the “Fos 2XL” Marseille Port extension. This project, which comprises the construction of two new container terminals at Fos-sur-Mer (western docks of Port of Marseille Fos) and their commissioning by 2010, will serve to multiply container traffic at the Port of Marseille Fos by a factor of 2.5 (from 1 million containers today to 2.5 million), confirming the Port of Marseille’s position as France and the Mediterranean’s number one port. The new infrastructure will also lead to the creation of some 400 direct jobs in the port area and several thousand in related sectors.
The EIB, the EU’s financing institution, considered that the GPMM project met several of the objectives of trans-European transport networks development policy. At the signing ceremony, Philippe de Fontaine Vive stressed the project’s importance in view of the Port of Marseille Fos and Marseille’s strategic location for the establishment of motorways of the sea and the intermodal transport chain in general. Jean-Claude Terrier welcomed the fact that Port of Marseille Fos had found in the EIB a world-famous stable financial partner that enabled it to diversify the financing of Fos 2XL on highly competitive interest rate and maturity terms.
He explained that the EIB had offered to participate in the financing of this EUR 210m project by means of a EUR 100m credit line open for a period of three years and to be drawn down in several tranches. The maturity (from 5 to 30 years), interest calculations, repayment schedule and rate would be determined for each individual tranche requested.
The Fos 2XL container terminal is now being financed in proportions of 26% by the Port’s own funds (EUR 55m), 26% by subsidies from the Bouches-du-Rhône General Council, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Council and the State (EUR 55m) and 48% by the EIB loan (EUR 100m).
The Fos 2XL construction works were launched in 2007. A more than one kilometre-long quay is in the process of completion and the second phase of the dredging works will commence by the end of the year. The private operators of the future terminal – MSC and Port Synergy (CMA CGM), the world’s second and third biggest container terminal operators – will continue with their own investment projects in 2009 with a view to commissioning in 2010.
Background
Port infrastructure and trans-European transport networks are EIB priorities, along with regional development
With this new loan to Port of Marseille, the EIB is confirming its position as the leading source of finance for European port infrastructure, to which it has granted loans worth nearly EUR 4.5bn over the last ten years, especially to support the construction of container terminals. It has also provided finance for a number of ports in Africa, South America and the Mediterranean region (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria).
The Port of Marseille is France’s main port and is connected to the road, rail and river networks linking France to Spain and Italy as well as central and northern Europe. This loan therefore also accords with one of the EIB’s priority remits: financing the trans-European transport networks (TENs) to facilitate the free movement of people and goods between the 27 Member States and to foster European integration. In his address in Marseille, Philippe de Fontaine Vive also reaffirmed the EIB’s commitment to supporting the region’s economic development players. Indeed, the Bank has already provided loans in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region totalling more than EUR 2bn, nearly EUR 1bn of which over the past ten years, in support of major investment in the transport sector, but also for healthcare (hospital facilities), environmental management (water and sanitation) and innovative industrial and telecoms projects.