12/6/06 ( Business Times) - PORT of Le Havre, the biggest French Port, welcomes Malaysian palm oil shippers to use its port facilities and services as the main gateway markets in France, as well as other European markets.

"Le Havre, as the biggest cargo handling port in France and the fifth biggest port in the Europe, is confident of offering compatible total logistics solution for Malaysian palm oil shippers," its executive director Jean- Marc Lacave said.

"We are the first port of call on the Far East-Europe trade route. Ships sailing from ports in the Far East, including Malaysia will be able to unload the cargoes in Le Havre first before reaching any other major European port with similar palm oil handling facilities such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, Felixstowe and Hamburg," he said.

Lacave said by using Le Havre, palm oil shippers would be able to reach not only France but also the 450 million people of the European market that the port serves," said Lacave, who led a delegation from the port to promote Le Havre to Malaysian shippers.

"Besides that, we are two-hours away from Paris by road and that plays a significant part as an international transit port for fuel products, industrial bulk goods, agribusiness produce and containers," he added.

Malaysia is an important trading country with France with a total trade of US$3.3 billion (RM12.04 billion) recorded last year.

A total of 22,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) from Malaysia entered Le Havre port and 13,000 TEUs from Le Havre Port landed at Malaysian ports last year. - Portsworld