The year 2007 ended with particularly positive results for port business in Le Havre, France, with a global growth of 6.6% of tonnage with nearly 80 million tons (Mt) (79.4 Mt as provisional figures including bunkering and ship stores) and an outstanding rise in container traffic: 25.3 % in tonnage compared to 2006.

Container trade recorded excellent results throughout 2007, thus accounting for more than 26.4 Mt (a gain of 25.3%) and 2.64 million twenty-foot equivalent unit containers (TEU).

As the prime movers of the growth revival, the new infrastructures of Port 2000 have achieved very high buildup in 2007 with 760,000 TEU handled in Terminal de France while the Terminal Porte Océane, which started operation in late November 2007, was in starting phase with 11,300 TEU handled over the five weeks of business in 2007.

The other general cargo (mainly ro/ro traffic) accounted to 1.6 Mt in 2007, recording a slight decrease in comparison with 2006 (- 0.7 %).

Very good performances were recorded concerning dry bulk levels in 2007. Globally speaking, tonnage rose by 31% to 4.8 Mt. This trade has especially been boosted by the growth of coal traffic (+ 34% with 2.4 Mt in 2007) that accounts for half the tonnage. In other respects, the other dry bulks remain quite stable.

The only tone a bit down for the year 2007 was for liquid bulks which slightly dropped by 3.1% with 46.0 Mt against the year 2006, mainly owing to the impact of the five-year stoppage of the Normandy refinery for a period of two months. Crude oil traffic thus recorded a 3.7 % decrease in tonnage with 33 Mt at end of 2007.

The passenger trade (ferries and cruise vessels) experienced an upturn in 2007 with more than 430,000 passengers received. Among them, 78,000 involved cruising trade (+ 33% against 2006) and about 355,000 cross-Channel trade (+ 34.2% against 2006).