Summary

The French maritime economy in 2009

Value added: 22 billion euros
Employment: 459,000

1. Units: million euros, number of jobs; na: not available.
2. Source data being revised.
3. Including port authorities and shipping agents.
4. Employment not including port authorities, handling, pilotage, boatage, towage. Shipping agent jobs included.
5. Extraction and first sorting only; not including processing.
6. Ifremer estimates of public services' value added based on staff costs. Data from naval staff, Transport Ministry and marine research organisations.

Comments

  • The data show a 20% value added decrease and a 5% employment decrease compared to 2005 figures as estimated and presented in our 2007 report.
  • This decrease is principally due to the economic slowdown in developed countries in 2009, which impacted several maritime sectors in different ways. Maritime transport was very severely impacted; its value added dramatically dropped compared to 2007 but its staff increased. The revision of the national statistical data might also have impacts on the 2009 figures of certain sectors.
  • Coastal tourism remained the largest maritime sector. It accounted for nearly half of maritime employment.
  • The other important maritime industries are:
    • shipbuilding,
    • maritime and inland shipping, despite its modest 2009 value added,
    • seafood industry
    • offshore oil and gas services, whose employment remained modest relatively to its value added,
    • public sector, which was less impacted than other maritime sectors by the 2009 economic slowdown.
  • Other sectors had a significant contribution to the maritime economy: submarine cables, maritime and river civil engineering, aggregate extraction.
  • A promising sector appeared: marine energies.