French Ship Repair Docks Almost Ready

The final stage of renovating shiprepair drydocks 8 and 9 at the Port of Marseilles will be carried out in 2005 with renewal of the electricity supply at a cost of Euro404,000. The work will be entirely funded by the port authority, which leases out the facilities, and takes total expenditure to more than €6m under an upgrade programme approved in 1999. Previous improvements include a €1.2m overhaul of the pumping station, acquisition of a mobile crane for €1.4m and overhaul of the Titan heavy-lift crane for €1m. Refurbishment of the dock gates is currently under way at an estimated cost of €2.4m. The docks were built in 1960 and are large enough to accept 90% of ships in the world fleet.