Marseille-Fos Port () is the main trade seaport of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 2011, the port had an overall traffic of 88 million tons. It was also one of the 15 world's largest cruise ports and the fifth-largest in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

. It has two main sites: in northern

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

from La Joliette to l'Estaque as well as in Fos-sur-Mer, about 50 km (31 mi) north west of Marseille. The port generates 41,500 jobs has an annual turnover of €169.5 million and a traffic of €4 billion according to an

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

study.http://www.marseille-port.fr/v_anglaise/presse/communiques/fichiers/2013/news_port_marseille_fos_0502_2013.pdf The port is the biggest French port, the third biggest Mediterranean port and the seventh biggest European port, transporting 79 million tons of goods in 2019, making it the 41st port in the world.

History

Historically the Old Port of Marseille functioned as the city's primary port. In the 1840s, maritime traffic becomes too intense for its capacities and an extension seemed necessary. As second port of France, the issue was too important and the national government took action, passing a law on August 5, 1844 toward the construction of a new basin at la Joliette, to the north of the Old Port, through an ambitious project (13 million francs). The construction of the large mole used concrete block techniques. The Joliette infrastructures began to be used in 1847. The basin was fully completed in 1853. The Development Council for the metropolitan area of Marseille-Provence has studied the creation of a technopole, or technoport, to redynamise the port activities. It would include the capacity to repair ships over 270 m (885 ft or 295 yd) long, offshore wind turbines and other innovative technologies.''Avis - Vers la création d'un technoport sur le territoire Marseille-Povence''
, Conseil de Développement Marseille-Provence Métropole, June 2013.

Traffic statistics

References

{{Authority control Transport in Marseille Ports and harbours of France