Family-owned road haulage and logistics group Vigneron has taken a stake in a combined terminal in eastern France. The facility is run by the Société d’Exploitation Multimodale de Meurthe-et-Moselle (SE3M) a subsidiary of the city of Nancy’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI). The size of Vigneron’s stake has not been disclosed.
The aim in opening up the terminal’s capital to the private sector is to drive traffic growth and attract road hauliers to the rail freight mode. Operational since 2013, SE3M currently handles 8,000 containers annually – the equivalent of around 200 trains – with services to the ports of Zeebrugge, in Belgium and Marseille’s Fos-sur-Mer box terminal as well as Hendaye, a key transit point for freight traffic on the French-Spanish border.
The objective is to increase throughput to 15,000 containers annually by 2027, rising to 25,000 in the longer term. “This new phase in the development will allow the terminal to offer a credible and, today, necessary alternative to road haulage,” Nancy’s CCI’s President François Pélissier, told French media. Groupe Vigneron, which has an annual turnover of 80 million euros and employs 400 staff, is the main user of the terminal.
“We’ve been involved in multi-modal activity for several years now,” explained Managing Director Quentin Giordano.“ The aim is to create a genuine ecosystem around this facility that serves as a tool for businesses and economic players in our region,” he added.
Combi terminal ‘master plan’
In October last year, France’s State Directorate-General for Infrastructure, Transport and Mobility (DGITM) published a “national master plan” for combined transport. It estimated that the country’s 46 ‘combi’ terminals are no longer sufficient to meet growing demand.
The plan makes provision for the creation of 22 terminals, including four which are already financed and and the re-opening of five others. It also recommends carrying out extension and modernisation work on 27 existing terminals.