The shipping platform

Location: Nantes-St Nazaire is located at the mouth of the River Loire on the W coast of France and the various terminals stretch along 60km of the Loire estuary up to Nantes. General overview: The 4 major sites including Saint Nazaire, Donges, Montoir and Nantes are also known as Port Atlantique. Cargo handling facilities are extensive with berths for general cargo, bulk, Ro-Ro, container, reefer, tanker and cruise vessels readily available. There are in addition, extensive ship building/repair, drydock and bunkering facilities. The facilities at Saint Nazaire are used to handle imports of cattle feed and fruits and to export cereals, grains, meats, vegetable oils, and refrigerated goods. The also serve heavy cargoes and ship repairs. Three locks provide access to Port of Saint Nazaire and Penhoet docks. Large merchant vessels use the south lock. Services vessels and fishing or pleasure boats use the east lock. The largest vessels, particularly those going to and from the shipyards, use the 350-meter long Louis Joubert lock. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Atlantic Fruit Terminal at Saint Nazaire is located at the Darses Quay, which can accommodate vessels up to 185 meters long with 8.5 meter draught. The terminal contains covered storage of 10.6 thousand square meters and refrigerated warehouse of five thousand square meters. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Refrigerated Terminal, at the Commerce Quay in Saint Nazaire, has 48 thousand square meters of storage for negative-temperature cargoes. The quay can accommodate vessels to 150 meters. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Chevire Industrial Zone in Nantes is France’s leading port facility for handling wholesale tropical sawn timber imports. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire offers a full array of services to handle all tree species. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Forest Products and General Cargo Terminal in Nantes receives tropical, resinous, and broad-leaved timber from Northern Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. About 40 companies have facilities in area reserved for trade and storage in the 300-hectare industrial zone. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Upriver Chevire site contains two berths that can accommodate vessels to 225 meters, and the Downriver Chevire site has one berth that accommodates the same size vessels. Cruise vessels arrive at the Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire near the city center at the Wilson Quay facility in Nantes. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Wilson Quay Terminal can accommodate vessels to 185 meters (to 200 meters in special circumstances) long, and the d’Aiguillon Quay facility can accommodate 113-meter long cruise liners. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s General Cargo and Container Terminal in Montoir can accommodate cruise liners over 185 meters long. The Wilson Quay facilities offers free shuttle service to the city center, and it is the departure point for tours of the area. The Wilson Quay is only eight kilometers from the Nantes Atlantique International Airport. Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire cruise operations are coordinated with other major French seaports on the Atlantic and English Channel through the French Atlantic Ports of Call Association. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Grain Terminal for Great Western France is located in the Nantes Roche-Maurice Terminal. The Sodistock Group manages the terminal, which has vertical storage capacity for 120 thousand tons of cargo and two berths that accommodate vessels to 225 meters long. The facility has a cereal- and grain-bagging unit that can process three thousand tons per day. The Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s roll-on/roll-off terminal consists of a floating dock and gangway, it contains two docking points. The first is downriver from the landing stage to moor barges, and the second is upriver from the landing stage to receive sea-river ships. Three private companies have facilities at the Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Sand Terminal in Nantes to process and sell sand. The sand is located off the mouth of the estuary, and the sand is collected at sites in La Pilier and Le Charpentier. Groups can get guided tours of the facilities of the Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire. They can take a tour of the Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s Nantes-Chevire-Roche Maurice facilities, which takes about 1-1/2 hours, or they can choose to tour the Port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire’s facilities at Saint Nazaire, Montoir, and Donges for about 2-1/2 hours. Traffic figures: The Nantes-St Nazaire complex, which includes St Nazaire, Montoir, Donges and Nantes, handles a total of approx 3,000 vessels, 31,100,000t of cargo and 175,000TEU annually. Load line zone: North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II, Winter Nov 1 to Mar 31, Summer Apr 1 to Oct 31. Max size: LOA 350m, draught 16.0m, 140,000DWT. Restrictions on vessel length as follows: Nantes 225m, Montoir/Donges 350m, St Nazaire Lock 180m, beam 28m.