News detail

THE ZGI DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM AT DUNKERQUE-PORT SELECTED AS A “TURNKEY” INDUSTRIAL SITE
24th january 2020

As part of the third “Choose France!" summit meeting which began on 20 January in Versailles, Secretary of State Agnès Pannier-Runacher disclosed the names of twelve" turnkey" industrial sites (sites that can host industrial activities and for which the administrative procedures concerning urban planning, rescue archaeology and the environment have been carried out in advance in order to offer the investor immediate or short-term availability). The list was presented to the executives of the international groups attending the “Choose France!" summit. One of the sites, selected following a call for applications launched by the French government in November 2019 for the regional and local authorities, is the Heavy Industry Zone (ZGI) development platform of Dunkerque-Port.

The ZGI extends over 125 ha of marketable land, of which 45 ha have already been reserved for food and beverage manufacturers and power providers.

The site is described as being "turnkey" because Dunkerque-Port has carried out the administrative procedures in advance in order to make the platform immediately available, by being granted the decrees covering "water law", "protected species" and rescue archaeology regulations.

The platform is also located in the immediate vicinity of drinking and industrial water, gas and optic fibre networks and has exceptional capacities in terms of power supply. In particular, by 2021 the site will have a new electrical substation with a capacity of 80MW of nominal power at start-up (with extensions to that capacity possible), and direct connections to the ENEDIS or RTE networks. The substation, ordered by the port and the local authority ahead of future developments, is an operation that has been unique in France in recent years.

In addition to its leading industrial-port ecosystem in fields as diverse as steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, packaging, power, etc., and its place as the leading power platform in Europe, the port is easily accessible.

The ZGI has an interchange (Bourbourg, Gravelines exit) on the A16 / E40 motorway (Channel Tunnel - Calais - Dunkerque - Belgium (Ghent, Brussels). It is connected with the A25 (Dunkirk - Lille) and A26 (Calais, Cambrai, Saint Quentin, Reims) motorways.

The leading rail freight station in France, Dunkerque also provides daily  high-speed train (TGV) connections to Lille and Paris in addition to the conventional regional express (TER) lines via Dunkerque railway station. The Calais-Fréthun TGV station provides daily connections to London.

River transport, which also represents numerous possibilities for irrigating the hinterland via the Dunkerque-Valenciennes wide-gauge canal, will see its appeal further enhanced by direct access to the future Seine-Nord Europe Canal.

For Stéphane Raison, Chair of the Executive Committee of Dunkerque-Port: "Dunkerque-Port is delighted that one of its many development platforms has won the call for applications launched by the government to identify operational “turnkey” industrial sites. The proximity of the port infrastructure, in particular with the container and cross-Channel terminals (12 port calls/day with Dover), the “Dunkerque  Logistics International” area as well as the river port, will facilitate imports and exports with Europe and the international markets”.

• View news in this topic