Three winners for the reindustrialisation of the Seine Axis

Following a call for project proposals issued last June, three candidates have been selected by HAROPA PORT from among the eight competing for allocation of the “West A29” site.

The plot in Le Havre’s port industrial area under the “France 2030 Turnkey Sites” programme, will be occupied by three major industrial projects: LIVISTA, AIR PRODUCTS and QAIR. This historical announcement represents a genuine innovation in the field of real estate management, taking into account the increasing scarcity of available land, soil conservation under the net zero artificialisation (ZAN) legislation and the requirements of the energy transition. These new operations are expected to add nearly a million tonnes of maritime traffic and 500,000 tonnes of river traffic every year.

The 60-hectare site is located in Rogerville, a municipality adjacent to Le Havre’s Grand Canal and the A29 highway. It is one of the five HAROPA PORT plots designated under the “France 2030” turnkey site label and receiving government support for the implementation of industrial projects. The setting up of such new complex, innovative projects must in fact go through a crucial phase involving studies and the obtaining of official permits.

A key actor in France’s reindustrialisation

These new operations are part of a wider-ranging HAROPA PORT programme for the development of real estate for industrial and logistics projects, for which the location is ideal due to connection to utilities essential to this category of project (transport and energy supply networks). The real estate still available for development, in the context of pursuance of the ZAN zero artificialisation target and a strategy for greater density of site occupancy based on the reuse of already artificialised land, involves a “reconstruction of the port at the port”. It is a strategy that corresponds to one of the objectives of HAROPA PORT’s 2020-2025 strategic project: to make the port industrial areas of the Seine Axis ports priority locations for France’s industrial redevelopment.

Reindustrialisation of the “West A29” site exemplifies this approach in that it embodies a radically new way of optimising land take-up and increasing project density on occupied plots. The success of this call for project proposals is confirmation of the role of HAROPA PORT as a player driving the country’s economic attractiveness. The added-value for the local region of hosting the new operations – LIVISTA, AIR PRODUCTS and QAIR – on this land is unprecedented since the creation of Port 2000. Setting up this major industrial programme has now resulted in the creation of a whole complex dedicated to the energy transition and representing investment amounting to €2.6bn, in addition to almost 2,200 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

In the wake of this allocation of the “West A29” site, HAROPA PORT has already issued a further call for proposals for the 25-hectare “East A29” site to be attributed in the first quarter of 2025. In the medium term, two additional sites totalling 100 hectares remain to be allocated in 2025/2026 south of the Le Havre Grand Canal, depending on prospective industrial demand.