New Port of Marseille Fos CEO Sets Out Road map

Three questions for Hervé Martel

The Port of Marseille Fos is aiming to attract industrial and logistics companies to create new throughput. What is your development strategy for increasing investor interest?

“The Port of Marseille Fos has witnessed continual growth. Over the 2014-2018 period, the number of traffics has increased by 6%, generating a 23% increase in income. However, the industry today is no longer in a growth phase, which is why we need to look to innovation and new industrial clients. Port industrial zones can become competitive, well-connected sites offering efficient logistics solutions. This is the approach the Port of Marseille Fos has decided to pursue.

To develop the industries as a whole and to attract investors, we are implementing solutions that reconcile competitiveness and environmental excellence. The PIICTO* association, of which the Port holds the vice-presidency, is aiming to support and develop various projects in the field of innovation linked to the circular economy, renewable raw materials, energy transition and smart networks (power to gas, power to power etc.). Several projects, including Vasco2, Icare, Vabosco, Jupiter 1000 and FlowBox are already in the experimental phase and are maturing quickly. A number of these semi-industrial demonstrators are housed at a 12-hectare incubator located to the north of the PIICTO platform or at existing industrial sites.

In brief, in addition to sustaining and optimizing the existing industrial ecosystem, we are taking advantage of the opportunities provided by energy transition and showcasing the advantages the port of Marseille-Fos can offer investors in terms of sustainable development.”

How do you plan to work with the Provence Promotion agency and with Via Marseille-Fos ?

“We have the same ambitions: to make our region an economically-attractive hub. If we’re going to increase the number of companies setting up here, Provence Promotion is going to be a key partner. As for Via Marseille-Fos, the Port’s commitment is undisputed, such is the association’s importance in the port’s promotion and, therefore, its business. Provence Promotion and Via Marseille Fos are vital links in the Port’s success chain.”

The Provence Industry’Nov call for projects has highlighted the Port’s commitment to the circular economy. Does this scheme fulfill the Port’s ecological transition ambitions?

“Ecological transition requires an ecosystem to be in tune to make new projects emerge and, in this respect, the Provence Industry’Nov call for interest will allow a certain number of political, economic and institutional stakeholders to be brought together on the theme and the market to be sounded out. It’s the perfect illustration of what cooperation can bring with a view to ensuring the economic development of our area and our region.

The Provence Industry’Nov call for projects is in synergy with other actions being implemented by the Port of Marseille-Fos, which for several years has been pursuing a policy of concrete projects linked to ecological transition, and comes on top of other key sales and marketing campaigns undertaken by the Port, such as the recent Carbon4Pur event  organized at the port or its support for the Journées Hydrogène (Hydrogen Days) being held in Marseille in the near future.”

(*) Plate-forme Industrielle et d’Innovation de Caban Tonkin (Caban-Tonkin Industrial and Innovation Platform).