French strikes block ships

A 24-hour strike yesterday by workers in France's seven state-run ports in protest against government plans to privatise cargo handling operations blocked more than 100 vessels, port officials said.

Nearly 70 vessels were hemmed in or stuck at quay in Marseille, France's main port, and stoppages also hit the ports of Dunkirk, Le Havre, Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, port officials said. In Rouen, the top grain export harbour in France, activity was reduced but only slightly, they said.

"Activity is blocked in all sectors because of this 24-hour strike," an official at the port of Marseille, which includes France's largest oil hub Fos-Lavera and also handles containers, said.

Yesterday's strikes in all of France's so-called autonomous ports is timed to coincide with the presentation of the privatisation plans in cabinet.

Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said yesterday the planned reform would help create new jobs and improve the ports' functioning.

"This plan is not intended to cause social regression, there is no ideological ambition, it aims to revive our ports," he told French radio BFM.

In Fos-Lavera the widely-followed strike blocked 39 oil tankers to access the oil hub and another 19 were stuck at quay, an official said.

However, British chemical company Ineos said its 207,000 barrels per day refinery, the largest in Fos-Lavera, was unaffected by the strike and was running at full capacity.

French oil giant Total also said there had been no slow-down in output at its 158,000 bpd La Mede refinery near Marseille. Exxon Mobil, which has a 115,000 bpd refinery in Fos-sur-Mer, and Royal Dutch Shell, which also has a refinery near Marseille, declined to comment.

Fos Lavera is Europe's second-biggest port for oil products with 64.2 million tonnes moving through it annually.

The head of French petroleum industry group UFIP said the impact of the strikes on refineries' output was minimal, but if unions decided to extend the strikes, the situation could become "very serious".