THE PORT OF MARSEILLE FOS AND MONACO MARINE SEAL THEIR PARTNERSHIP TO CREATE A MEGA YACHT MAINTENANCE AND REFIT CENTRE IN MARSEILLE
- On Thursday 20 September 2018, the Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine Marseille officially signed their partnership to create a mega yacht maintenance and refit centre in the Mirabeau harbour sector of the Port of Marseille Fos.
- For a period of 50 years the Port has granted an area of 55,000m2 dedicated to marine pleasure craft repair to the company Monaco Marine, which specializes in yacht maintenance and refit between Monaco and Marseille.
MONACO MARINE WINS THE JANUARY 2018 CALL FOR PROJECTS
Keen to reinforce the development of port activity related maritime and industrial activities in the port
area, the Port of Marseille Fos launched a call for projects at the beginning of 2018 with the aim of
attracting proposals and initiating a general industrial project in the area of the Port known as the
Mirabeau harbour. At the end of the process, having presented an ambitious project for a maintenance
and renovation centre dedicated to very large 90 to 133 meter yachts, the company Monaco Marine was
selected.
During his introductory speech Jean-Marc Forneri, Chair of the Port of Marseille Fos Supervisory
Board said: “Alongside Monaco Marine, the Port of Marseille Fos is now enthusiastically committed
to a 50-year concession contract. This development project is not only good news for the yachting
business in Marseille, but also for the local ship repair cluster which has nearly 90 companies in our
area.” He went on to add, “This Marseille project is not intended to compete with its neighbour La
Ciotat, but proposes a complementary offer that strengthens the regional offer
MONACO MARINE CHOOSES MARSEILLE TO INSTALL A 6000 T SHIP LIFT
Monaco Marine, the trailblazer in the yacht repair and refit (conversion / transformation) business in
the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region where the Group already has seven shipyards (and a private
marina) in Monaco, decided to develop its capacities and its activity with a mega yacht offer in Marseille.
To explain this decision, Michel Ducros, President of the Monaco Marine Group, said: “The strong growth
in the mega yacht market requires an increase in our capacity for very large units (up to 6,000 tonnes
and 130m in length) that only the Port of Marseille Fos infrastructure and waters can accommodate.
With the creation of this base in Marseille, in addition to our excellent La Ciotat shipyard for units of
50 to 80 meters and the imminent opening of our site in Toulon-La Seyne for 35-50 meter vessels, we
are able to offer our full services on all types of yachts and mega yachts. We are very confident in our
future in Marseille where the quality of the infrastructure and the management of the Port, supported
by all the local authorities in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, were determining factors in our
decision to invest a considerable sum. We are delighted with the prospect of creating hundreds of
direct and indirect jobs and contributing to the dynamism and prosperity of the Port and city we are
attached to.”
A TOTAL INVESTMENT OF €71 MILLION
Monaco Marine will invest more than €44 million in the maintenance and refit centre project, notably
by ordering and commissioning a 6,000-ton ship lift – the world’s largest in the yacht repair business.
The Port of Marseille will invest €27 million in infrastructure works to create the platform, an amount
for which it will receive support from the State and the Region: €1.25 million each, i.e. €2.5 million
under the 2015-2020 State Region Contract Plan for ship repair.
The Port of Marseille Fos already has an international reputation in the marine pleasure craft repair
sector due to its remarkable technical capabilities and the expertise developed over many years by
companies such as Palumbo Marseille Superyacht, ITM and Sud Marine Shipyard and the network of
local subcontractors who are now highly specialized in specific yacht industry related activities. With
this facility, the Marseille area now has an additional asset, which strengthens the Port of Marseille
Fos in the face of its Mediterranean competitors. The entire ecosystem of port-related activities in the
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region and ship repair subcontracting will benefit from this growth.
ABOUT MONACO MARINE
The Monaco Marine Group was created in 1995 by Mr. Ducros – also owner of Fauchon – Monaco Marine France SAS. It specializes in super-yacht maintenance and repair with the aim of standardizing and improving the level of service in the medium-sized pleasure yacht maintenance and renovation business. Over the last 23 years the Group has invested in maintenance infrastructure on the entire French coast.
The main stages of its development in the French Mediterranean:
- 1995 opening of its Saint Laurent du Var shipyard 5,500m² of space, vessels from 5 to 25 meters
- 1997 opening of its Beaulieu sur Mer shipyard 6,000 m² of space, vessels from 5 to 40 meters
- 2002 opening of its Saint-Tropez site 28,000m² of space, vessels from 5 to 40 meters
- 2007 opening of its activities in La Ciotat 43,000m² of space, vessels over 45 meters
- 2012 opening of its site in Antibes 8,000m² of space, vessels from 5 to 50 meters
- Mars 2018 Marseille site opens 320 linear meters of quays, works afloat for units of 52 meters and over
- Novembre 2018 opening of the La Seyne sur Mer maintenance site 40,000m² of space, vessels from 30 to 55 meters
ABOUT THE PORT OF MARSEILLE FOS
In 2017 Marseille Fos recorded global traffic of 81 Mt, which all sectors combined makes it the leading port in France. A general cargo and multimodal port (rail, road, river, pipeline), it hosts warehouses in two logistics areas near the Fos container terminals and industry (refineries, iron and steel, chemicals) through a “plug & play” offer. A particularly dynamic segment, the container business has been booming over the last few years with growth of 40% in 6 years (up 10% in 2017). Like any world-class port, it provides ship repair activities with 9 refit dry docks, including the largest in the Mediterranean. Annually 2.7 million passengers pass through the Port.
