Freight News, Sea


Haropa boosts cargo and boxes in a turbulent year

[ January 23, 2026   //   ]

The Haropa Group of ports (Le Havre, Rouen and Paris) increased total maritime traffic by 2%, with containers reaching a historic high, up 4% to 3.1 million TEU,  in the face of an extremely unpredictable international environment, according to figures for 2025.

The year was marked by the introduction of new US customs tariffs, the reshuffling of shipping line Alliances and strategies and continued routing of ships via the Cape of Good Hope instead Suez.

Revenue, at €435 million, was stable in comparison to 2024’s record level, Haropa added.

In the port’s hinterland, highlights included a new barge connection to Bruyères, North of Paris and new rail connections from Le Havre to Tours in central France, bring the total weekly roundtrip trains to 100. Work also started on Port Seine Métropole Ouest (PSMO), a 100-hectare port at the confluence of the Seine, the Oise and the future Seine-Nord Europe Canal. This will be the first new inland port to be build in France since 1945. 

Under the 2020–25 Strategic Plan, €1.2 billion was committed to modernise infrastructure and support green transition. These included a project to provide direct barge access to container terminals and delivery of the final four of a fleet of nine gantry cranes by terminal operator TiL-MSC, 13 hybrid straddle carriers at Générale Manutention Portuaire’s Terminal de France.

Together, the three operators plan to triple container capacity.

Unlike other ports in north-west Europe, Le Havre had not suffered congestion during the year, despite the many disruptions to global shipping.

Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT), a subsidiary of the shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, became the majority shareholder of the North terminals operator, now renamed HGT Le Havre, alongside the Seafrigo Group.

The European Commission will provide €6 million in funding to support continuation of shore-side electrification for container and cargo vessels under its Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility.

It is also commercialising 486ha of turnkey land in the Normandy and the Île-de-France region to host projects of national and/or European scale and could bring  a total of 700-800 hectares of land to market by 2030.

Le Havre is an important gateway for containers to Ireland, although the britanny Ferries ro ro service to Portsmouth is currently suspended. However, Haropa hopes that this will be resumed shortly.

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