Dunkirk grain gain

Irish cement company Ecocem will invest €30M in a new production facility in Dunkirk as part of a joint venture with steelmaker ArcelorMittal. Representatives of Ecocem France, ArcelorMittal and the Port of Dunkirk met in early September to sign the contract for provision of 4-ha of port land, where Ecocem will build a shredding plant.

Grain traffic remains crucially important for French ports, while fortunes in the mineral bulks field vary.

While France’s other leading sea port authorities (GPMs) have breathed a collective sigh of relief over the national agreement with the trade unions, lead by the CGT, on the 2008 port reform law, Dunkirk has been boosted by an announcement from president Nicolas Sarkozy that EdF will, after all, build a new LNG terminal in the port.

In order to optimise quay operations and reduce queuing times, a new mooring post has been installed to the north of the Western Bulks Terminal (QPO) operated by Sea-Bulk in the Port of Dunkirk.

Demand for harbour mobile cranes has risen steadily in the past few years, in large measure driven by bulk terminal operators. Of the 59 harbour mobile cranes which Gottwald says it delivered during 2004, 24 (40 per cent) were 4-rope cranes aimed principally at bulk handling duties.