France future-proofing logistics sector with waterway investment

Infrastructure is essential for a functioning industrial and logistics sector. Location, access to transport links and multi-modality are key factors for logistics operators as the speed of delivery and reliability matter more than ever.

Infrastructure investment

Driven by decarbonisation policies, France is seeing large-scale infrastructure investment offering new logistics opportunities. The French ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris (HAROPA) located along the Atlantic trans-European transport network (TEN-T) corridor merged to a single port on 1st June 2021. In 2021, HAROPA Port already showed positive results with maritime traffic reaching 83.6 million tonnes of goods, an increase of 12% over one year.

Meanwhile, river traffic was up by 4% over the same period. To increase river traffic, the Seine axis is planned to be strengthened and HAROPA port announced the construction of a major river and seaport complex (“Green Dock”) located in the Port of Gennevilliers, just 5km from Paris and 20 minutes from Roissy – Charles de Gaulle airport, allowing for last-mile delivery for urban logistics operators. The project is set to be completed by 2025.

In France, current logistics opportunities are near major regional centres, driven by the Greater Paris Region (nearly 20% of the French large warehouse stock) and close to transport hubs and, more specifically, along the north-south corridor (“la dorsale”), the country’s main logistics corridor. This spans from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south, passing through the Île-de-France region and the Lyon area. The Greater Paris region stock is concentrated in a large crescent, stretching from the north of Val d’Oiseto the centre of the Essonne department via Roissy, Marnela- Vallée, Sénartand Evry.

Waterway transport

One of France’s largest infrastructure projects is called “Canal Seine-Nord Europe” to drive forward the modal shift in road freight transport towards waterways. Works will begin in 2022 and the canal is scheduled for completion in 2028. It is a long-term project and will certainly have a strong impact on the logistics sector in France and in particular the Hauts-de-France region in Northern France. Longer-term investors, therefore, will look out for multi-modal logistics facilities that offer operational resilience to future-proof their investments.

Green investment

As part of the TEN-T programme, France is expected to receive €46 billion of funding in 2021-30, according to the European Commission. The full implementation of the TEN-T core network across Europe could lead to an additional GDP increase of 1.6% by 2030 and CO2 reduction of 12.5 million tonnes in 2030, M-Five GmbH estimates.

For long distances, freight transport, inland waterways and rail will increasingly provide an alternative to road transport but low-carbon intermodal links are crucial for goods to reach their destination. Investors and occupiers are therefore expected to target multi-modal facilities in locations that benefit from infrastructure investment.