With 8.44 million tonnes handled and an increase of 0.4% over the previous year, the Port of La Rochelle has signed in 2011, a record of traffic. The agricultural bulk, up 6.9% to 673,752 tonnes, while the development of new traffic (steel coils, wind, aluminum …) also contributed to the annual result. Thus, with 235,034 tonnes, various traffic (excluding oil, forestry, agriculture and sand), a substantial increase of 69.9%.
Other segments of the port of La Rochelle, however, are down more or less pronounced. Thus, grains and oilseeds (3.55 million tonnes) were down 1.55%, while petroleum products (2.45 million tonnes) to contract by 2.4%. With 863,271 tonnes handled during the year, forest products were down 1%. As for the sand, they were down 0.48% to 673,653 tonnes.
In the port of La Rochelle, the year was marked by the development of railway traffic, which for the first time exceeded the one million mark tons (1.06 Mt) of freight pre-or post-routed by rail. It is 14% more than in 2010 and 57% more than 4 years ago. The modal share of rail in the port now stands at 12.63% of port traffic, against 8.96% in 2007. “This strong growth is notably the result of the development policy of the couple sea-rail supported by investment in port infrastructure and the creation of the first French port rail operator, OFP La Rochelle, a subsidiary of the port,” says GPMLR.
La Rochelle also had a record year in the cruise industry, becoming the first port of call on the Atlantic with 36,466 passengers. In 2011, the Port hosted 23 stops, including 19 large ships.
