The liquidation of the Towt company saddens the shipping freight transport sector. But, « it is not the end of the story, on the contrary, projects are working, » says Stefan Gallard, deputy general manager of Grain de Sail, located in Morlaix (29). (Interview by Bruno Salaün)
How do you react to the judicial liquidation of Towt, one of the pioneers in the modern transatlantic veil transport of goods?
First, we think of the Towt team: pioneers committed to innovative projects, with convictions in favor of the ecological transition and decarbonized shipping. They remain valuable for the sector. It saddens us but it was predictable: it was very risky to make such substantial investments in eight ships, on a model that remains artisanal, in niche markets with high added value. But, we must not take this liquidation as an act of ending the history of the velique in France.
What do you mean?
The history of a company is not an indicator for the entire sector.
On the contrary, there are projects that are mor-chen, that are stable. For example, our boat Grain de Sail Il will leave Saint-Malo next week, 80% charged. Yes, with the history of tariffs, customs duties, the instability of the American economy, we have experienced a transitional period where customers have disengaged. But they all came back by agreeing to pay a little more for sailing transport because we keep the commercial and decarbonization promises. The velic transport, it works technically, it allows maritime transport to advance in decarbonization and I do not see any other projects sinking. But it remains an innovative and immature sector that needs to be supported by the State to take a course. The state, banks, customers, investors must not disengage. We all know that the economically viable model, on trade routes like these, excluding intra-European cabotage or between the islands, is that of containers and less pallets, in the standards of maritime transport, and therefore with large boats, larger than those of Towt. This is the meaning of the gradual evolution of Grain de Sail towards a third larger ship.
What do you expect from the bill on sail transport that will be considered next week in the National Assembly?
A regulatory framework and a definition of what sail transport is, with categories. This does not exist today. From the moment the framework is laid, this will allow us to enter boxes to look for subsidies, carbon credit exchanges. And to generate more investments to accelerate the development of the velic sector.
