Chinese automotive trade group CALA – China Automotive Logistics Association – has inspected the established auto-handling French port of La Havre on a fact-finding mission.

CALA members specialise in automotive logistics and focus on vehicle logistics-distribution, upstream and import–export. The 145 members include automakers Geely, Brilliance, Dongfeng, FAW and Foton.

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Le Havre’s ro-ro terminal is biggest French automotive port and moved 365,000 new vehicles in 2011 with a target of 500,000 in 2015. It is a multimodal freight terminal with direct access to rail, sea, road and river transport and processed 1,000 vehicles per day from 600 ship calls last year.

An umbrella organisation called HAROPA, which groups together the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, hosted the CALA delegation which was considering future distribution of new vehicles and spare parts into and within Europe.

“On this occasion, the Chinese professionals were able to assess the advantages offered by HAROPA as regards import-export automotive logistics,” the organisation said in a statement.

The Chinese visited three compounds operated by CAT, GEFCO and Walon. They inspected handling procedures – operated by Manucar, SMR and Roussel – and were briefed on planned expansion.

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CALA delegation leader, a Mr Gao, general manager of Beijin Foton Logistics, emphasised “the need, [of] all [participants in] the Chinese automobile trade, for efficient logistics and their wish to see Le Havre logistics companies able to bring their know-how within the scope of partnerships and exchanges to be created”.

HAROPA sees significant potential of growth for ro-ro trade, as China produces 18m vehicles a year, or around a quarter of world production. It already has working relationships with the two key French automakers – the Gefco ‘PLIP’ (logistics park) in Le Havre and Renault operations in Le Havre Sandouville and Rouen Grand-Couronne specialising in import-export.