Sixty million tonnes in the 1960s, a little over twenty million tonnes today. Since the oil, carried in pipelines, no longer travels by the Seine, the river which connects the busiest sea in the world to the enormous Paris region consumption basin has never regained its post-traffic level. war. A fatality ? Not so sure. With the changes demanded by the climate crisis, the time for the barge’s comeback may well have come. Today mainly confined to the transport of cereals and construction materials, it has rarely benefited from such favorable winds.
When the river comes back afloat
Red rags for road transport, the establishment of Low Emission Zones (ZFE), the speed limit to 30 km / h in the capital and the multiple traffic restrictions – but also to a lesser extent the unprecedented shortage of drivers- are blessed bread for the waterway. Driven from the bitumen, the big traders began to take a close look at the opportunities offered by the river to deliver the Ile-de-France. Stéphane Raison, director of Haropa, the establishment that covers the ports of Paris, Rouen and Le Havre, confirms this. ” The river is 7 days a week, 365 days a year and zero congestion. Hence the proliferation of expressions of interest from shippers ».
Some have recently taken action, such as the Swedish furniture kit giant. Installed since 2020 in a warehouse in the river port of Gennevilliers, Ikea is building a second distribution center of more than 70,000 m2, a little further downstream, in the port of Limay from where it will supply its private customers and its Parisian stores to horizon 2026. Last summer, it was also the king of the spread who crossed the Rubicon. Although its managers recognize that the operation is not profitable for lack of return loading, Ferrero ships a barge loaded with 22 pallets every week from Rouen. Direction: Monoprix warehouses in the capital. A bet on the future.
“Bye bye, the Man of Picardy”
But for some who leave the road for the river, how many remain at the quayside? ” We still have to convince customers, and in particular SMEs, to switch their supply chains, which remains complicated », Concedes the boss of VNF (Voies Navigables de France). Among the brakes, the dusty image that too often reflects river transport is not the least. Thierry Guimbaud, Managing Director of Voies navigables de France (VNF), readily admits this. ” We must fight the received ideas and say definitively bye bye to the Man of Picardy », He says. Allusion to an old successful soap opera that those under twenty cannot know.
Fitter than the rail, the river ecosystem is nevertheless its upgrade. Slowly but surely. Containers, pallets, bulk, heavy packages, exceptional transport … It is now capable of loading everything from fresh products or cosmetics through wind turbines or structural elements. ” The barges of 1,200 tons are endangered, they exceed almost every 2,000 tons », Emphasizes Antoine Berbain, in charge of multimodality at Haropa. The number of companies operating on the Seine has grown: the craftsmen of SCAT work alongside muscular operators such as Sogestran, Greenmodal, Bolloré Logistics or Marfret. On land, the terminals are expanding and modernizing to offer more storage space and optimized handling.
The waterway in agile mode
« There is real operational excellence and the ability to manage peaks in activity “, Observes Olivier Martineau, logistic manager of the Adeo group (Leroy Merlin, Bricoman), user of the waterway for fifteen years, which has transported 2,000 containers on the river in 2020. To target new markets, we are innovating with a vengeance. Le Havre Sogestran, which will soon launch a hydrogen barge, has thus designed for the Rouen group Cuillier, specialist in timber construction, a “Flexi-Malle” without walls to transport its panels to the Parisian sites. A launching pad for Amélie Cuillier, its director. ” As access to Paris is becoming more and more complicated, we can imagine that, tomorrow, 100% of the volume intended for it will pass through the river. She argues.
Yesterday’s digital gray area, the sector is digitalising at a rapid pace. VNF and Haropa inaugurated, this summer, a kind of Waze of the river under the name of SIF Seine: a river information service which provides real-time information on the availability of structures, traffic conditions or water levels. Publisher of software solutions to facilitate international trade, the Soget group has launched, with the TK Blue agency specializing in eco-responsible performance, a tool (the S’One Green) which automatically measures the carbon footprint of a shipment. Its target: carriers and shippers forced to reporting extra-financial. ” It covers the whole of the Seine and can be used indifferently for a cargo of wheat or for one or ten containers », Boasts Hervé Cornède, director of Soget.
THC, three angry letters
To hope to massify traffic, river transport will however have to cut a Gordian knot, that of the harmonization of THC or Terminal Handling Charge : a tax due for the handling of the merchandise. On most terminals, it is indeed more expensive to load a barge than a truck. The differential can go up to fifty euros for a container (!) On the Seine axis. While some large customers, such as Leroy Merlin, manage to negotiate advantageous prices, this additional cost dissuades the smaller players.
The public authorities promise that the file – an old antiphon known to users of the waterway – is at the top of the pile. ” The state has launched a mission, we will solve this endemic problem », Assures Stéphane Raison with the faith of the coalman. The boss of Haropa, known for having worked for the harmonization of THC in the port of Dunkirk, concedes however that ” it will take a little time “. How much ? The story does not say.
The infrastructure lock
Another obstacle to development is the under-dimensioning of certain infrastructures which prevents the circulation of large river convoys on several portions of the Seine. This is the case in the Oise between Creil and Compiègne where we are still hoping for the European size promised by the Mageo project (350 million euros). Likewise between Bray and Nogent in Yonne where the Soufflet group, the leading French cereal exporter, is growing impatient. ” Without the large gauge, it will be very complicated to perpetuate traffic on the Grand Est », Warns Lionel Le Maire, transport and logistics director.
Further downstream, it is the impossibility for the barges to reach the foot of the container ships calling at the rapid port of Le Havre that poses a problem. There again, an old antiphon, it is in the process of finding its resolution. Revived by the Normandy Region after fifteen years of procrastination, this 125 million euro project called the castle (in fact a dike protecting the dock from the swell) should come into service in 2023. It is entering public debate. November 22.
The publicity stunt of the Olympics
As we can see, the river mode if it has the wind in its sails must still change gear to be able to compete with the road. ” It is above all an artisanal mode which must go towards more industrial processes. », Recommends Olivier Jamey, president of Seine Port Union, a group of a thousand companies which operates on the river. However, the latest indicators are encouraging. Boosted by the Grand Paris construction sites, traffic has returned to and even exceeded its 2019 levels in the first half of 2021.
Enough to give credit to the partnership agreement that VNF and Haropa have just signed. The two public establishments undertake to do their utmost to develop the use of the waterway. They are giving themselves three years, until 2024, to lift the main obstacles. The date owes nothing to chance. ” The Olympic Games ceremony will take place on the Seine, recalls Stéphane Raison. We have ten years of guaranteed publicity! You have to work fast “. All the more quickly as the construction of the Seine Nord Canal risks offering a royal route to Paris for the large rival ports of northern Europe, acculturated for a long time to the freshwater navy.
