A contract notice was issued for "Ports Lorrains" concession by the Open Mixed Syndicate of port Lorrains (SMO) for the delegation of management, operation and development of the industrial-port domain of the 9 ports on Moselle river, France.

This project was jointly developed by the Greater East Region (Région Grand Est) and the public authority Voies Navigables de France (VNF) as well as by the communities concerned with the aim of finding a new organization to accelerate the development of these multimodal platforms. An Open Mixed Syndicate (SMO) of Ports Lorrains, associating VNF and the Region, was created in September 2018, marking the first step of the establishment of a single governance for these nine port sites.

The purpose of this public service delegation procedure is to select one or more shareholders as economic operators for the formation of a single purpose mixed economy company (SEMOP) and to award to the latter a public service delegation concession of the industrial-port domain of the ports of Cattenom, Koenigsmacker, Thionville-Illange, New Port of Metz, Metz Mazerolle, Belleville, Toul, Nancy-Frouard and Maxeville.

Four of the abovementioned ports are public tool concessions (Nancy-Frouard, Metz Mazerolle, New Port of Metz (1st French Inland Cereal Port) and Thionville-Illange) whose contracts expire on December 31, 2020 and whose management is entrusted to the CCI Grand Nancy Métropole (Frouard) and the operator CFNR Transports (Metz Mazerolle, New Port of Metz and Thionville-Illange).

A Notice of Public Call for Competition (AAPC) has been launched with a view to:
- to identify and select the partners and economic operators that will constitute the SEMOP, - to co-build with them the development project of the Lorrain Ports of the future,
- to set up the public service concession contract between the SMO and SEMOP.

Concession will be awarded for 30 years starting from January 1, 2012. The estimated value of the investment is EUR347.1 million. 

Deadline for submission of documents is May 31, 2019.