France's port of Rouen, Europe's largest grain-export hub, will dredge the shipping channel in the Seine River over the next four years to allow the inland port to accommodate vessels as big as 58,000 tonnes, Bloomberg reports.
Regional authorities approved the works after negotiations that started in 2007, said port spokesman Francois Henriot. The first phase will involve deepening the river from its mouth on the English Channel to an Exxon Mobil refinery about 25 kilometres upriver. The budget for the project is €185 million (US$242 million).
The dredging works will increase the channel's navigable depth by one metre to 11.7 metres, allowing access of Handymax and Supramax sized vessels, according to Henriot. Dredging the shipping channel may allow Rouen to attract almost 10 million tonnes of cargo a year, according to an emailed statement from the port. The port, France's fifth-biggest, now mostly receives vessels of 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes. Enlarging the shipping channel will benefit transport of oil products as well as agricultural commodities.
Draught constraints typically limit grain cargoes loaded in Rouen to about 40,000 tonnes. The port lost business in the first half of 2010 when Egypt, the world's biggest wheat buyer, demanded cargoes between 55,000 and 60,000 tonnes be loaded at a single port, before dropping the demand in July that year.
Societe de Dragage Internationale and Entreprises Morillon Corvol Courbot have won a tender for the first phase of the project, using a dredging vessel from Belgium's Dredging Environmental & Marine Engineering. The port will issue several tenders for further stages of the dredging project. The works will last from 2012 to 2015.
Portnews.ru