Contargo Links Dunkirk And Valenciennes

The port of Dunkirk continues to reinforce the inland waterway grid of its direct hinterland.
Since mid-November the company CONTARGO has operated a waterway container
shuttle between Dunkirk’s Terminal des Flandres (TdF) and the inland ports of Valenciennes.

Until now the many shippers in Valenciennes, which has a containerised goods market
estimated at some 100,000 TEU, did not have the vital facility for developing consolidated
and sustainable logistics via the port of Dunkirk.

This has now been made possible by CONTARGO, the operator of the inland terminals of
Saint-Saulve and Prouvy. During the startup phase the company offers a weekly frequency
and a rotation schedule synchronised with the Asia service which calls at Dunkirk every Tuesday.

CONTARGO’s decision to develop a new waterway container service is directly related to
the setup, on 1 September, of a system that provides a lasting solution to the extra cost of
waterway handling in French container terminals, hitherto borne by the waterway operators
alone.

Since that date Dunkirk has been the first port in France to spread this surcharge evenly over
all containers transiting through the terminal. Hence, this surcharge is no longer invoiced
solely to waterway operators but shared between all shipping companies according to the
volume of their entire container traffic entering and leaving the Dunkirk terminal.

«We are very pleased that the system of cost equalisation on inbound and outbound containers,
recently put in place in Dunkirk’s TdF terminal, has already resulted in the setup of a new
waterway transport service. The announcement confirms that this concerted decision by all the
operators of the transport chain was the right one,» said Daniel Deschodt, Commercial
Director of Dunkerque-Port.

Gilbert Bredel, Chairman of CONTARGO North France, added: «Finding a solution to the
issue of the final handling surcharge was an essential condition for the CONTARGO Group’s
commitment to Dunkirk. With new practices in waterway transport operating in this port, this
new service between Dunkirk and Valenciennes means we are now in a position to help increase
the overall attractiveness of the port of Dunkirk for container traffic.»

This new solution for combined waterway transport in the region adds to the service offered
by the operator NORD PORTS SHUTTLE (NPS) between Dunkirk, Lille and Dourges, and will
help to reinforce the role of Dunkirk as a regional gateway for container traffic in the north
of France.