By
Rebecca Gibson |
Marseille Fos and PortMiami have renewed their existing twinning agreement to boost their respective cruise and container markets.
PortMiami, which handled 4.8 million cruise passengers in 2014, signed a twinning agreement with Marseille Fos in 2000, which has helped the French port to become one of the top five cruise ports in the Mediterranean.
As part of the new twinning agreement, the ports plan to explore how their complementary cruise seasons can boost growth in their respective markets, and share best practices on port security and on urban-port projects.
This October, Marseille Fos will also open a new €4.4 million ‘cold ironing’ facility to enable visiting cruise ships and passenger ferries to connect to shoreside electrical power while berthed at the port. The facility, which is claimed to be a first for both France and the Mediterranean, has been developed by Marseille Fos port authority and ferry operator La Meridionale.
Over the next few months, the companies will continue to install the quayside power network and adapt La Meridionale’s ferries – Kalliste, Girolata and Piana – so that their diesel generators are no longer required during port calls.
It is expected that by using shoreside electricity to power ships while they are berthed will help to reduce noise and fuel consumption. In addition, it will enable each ship to eliminate carbon dioxide and particulate emissions equivalent to more than 3,000 vehicles per day on the 64km route from Marseille to Aix. Nitrogen oxide emissions will fall by the equivalent of 65,000 vehicles per day.
Meanwhile, a €28 million project to renovate the Marseille Fos’ Drydock 10 to provide a base for cruise ship repair and maintenance has been delayed.
Originally scheduled to reopen this September, Drydock 10 is now expected to open in March 2016 after contractor Spie batignolles TPCI suspended operations when a concrete pile-driving accident dislodged a small section of wall at the base of the dock gate. The accident revealed a deep crack, so the company led a study of the concrete and steel reinforcement, which was completed in May.
Drydock 10, which was used to repair supertankers between 1975 and 2000, is 465m long and 85m wide and will primarily provide a repair base for cruise ships of up to 360m in length that sail in the Mediterranean. It will be operated by the Mediterranean’s largest ship repairer San Giorgio del Porto, its subsidiary Chantier Naval de Marseille and cruise ship builder Mariotti as part of a 25-year franchise agreement. The group, which signed the franchise contract in June 2013, also has a commercial agreement with the STX France yard in Saint Nazaire.