HAROPA Port An Ideal Gateway For Trade Between India And Europe

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HAROPA Port An Ideal Gateway For Trade Between India And Europe

HAROPA - The port of the future combines the synergies of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris in France. The HAROPA team, led by Herve Cornede, Commercial Director (Haropa Ports) and Member of Directors, Port of Le Havre was recently in India to encourage and boost Indo-European Maritime trade. According to Herve Cornede, "We see Indian trade growing significantly and also note tremendous growth opportunities in the Indo- EU export import trade. We are here to facilitate Indo-European trade and take HAROPA Ports to a next level".

He added, "Choosing HAROPA and its transport and logistics means benefiting from cost competitive logistics solutions and services. The three Seine river ports came together under an economic interest grouping in early 2012, encompassing strategy, networks, sales and communication, to form a major maritime hub equipped with a competitive and sustainable logistics system. The ports now had a common IT system and Customs procedures under HAROPA and were emerging as a one-stop-shop for varied cargo handling solutions". Herve stressed that the relative cost and time advantages are drawing Indian exporters to the French port complex of Haropa for European markets. Indian companies such as Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra have been using the three-port system.

From Nhava Sheva and Kolkata to Le Havre an exporter can benefit from lesser transit time of about 3 to 7 days compared to Antwerp and Rotterdam and of about 3 days transit from Le Havre to Indian ports. Herve pointed out that HAROPA, the largest French port for container trade, is the first major port of call for containerships at the entrance to North Europe with 2.7 million TEUs of traffic (maritime +waterways trades), and that of the three HAROPA Ports bring the Indian Subcontinent closer to Europe and facilitates handling of all types of cargo.

Capt Somesh Batra of Seahorse Group said, "HAROPA enjoys premium position in number of areas and has won many awards for its outstanding performance and achievements. It is a matter of pride and pleasure for us to be associated with HAROPA ports to promote Indo-European trade relations". Port of HAROPA is the fifth biggest North European port, connected to the whole world with a first class international shipping offers, the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris generate a total of around 90 million tons of maritime trades. HAROPA located in France, represents the second biggest market in Europe.

The port offers a full range of regular containerised services with all continents (600 ports of call) owing to a choice of more than 120 services. It has top quality services for the biggest vessel in operation in the world with more than 330 container ships of capacity of more than 10, 000 TEU having called in 2014 in Le Havre. The top commodities of Indian exports to HAROPA are leather, textiles and garments. The top commodities of Indian imports from HAROPA are manufactured articles, paper, cotton, plastics, rubber and machinery parts, etc. Herve informed that in last two years the container trade between India and HAROPA has increased by more than 20%. The port is also focusing on India's Eastern States for its high mineral imports/exports as well as steel cargoes exported to Europe by the steel companies like Tata.

Presently, HAROPA is connected to 12 Indian ports including Kandla, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, Cochin, Tuticorin, Mormugao, Chennai, Haldia, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore, Krishnapatnam and Kolkata. Conrede further said that customs at Haropa ports provide 24/7 clearance facilities through a secure and 100% paperless customs procedures. Goods are cleared in less than five minutes and as per the recent survey conducted, 90% of firms reported full satisfaction with customs' services at HAROPA ports. The one-stop port shop which traces all operations owing to the interconnection with the Cargo Community System AP+ and the single data management via the CCS AP+ software guaranteeing a easy and simple use evoked interest.