Port of Marseille Fos and Monaco Marine seal 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, the company said in its press release.
For a period of 50 years the Port has granted an area of 55,000 m2 dedicated to marine pleasure craft repair to the company Monaco Marine, which specializes in yacht maintenance and refit between Monaco and Marseille.
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.
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.
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.
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 5,500 m² 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 28,000 m² of space, vessels from 5 to 40 meters 2007 opening of its activities in La Ciotat 43,000 m² of space, vessels over 45 meters 2012 opening of its site in Antibes 8,000 m² 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 40,000 m² 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.