Ports de Paris was founded in 1970 to develop the river transport of goods and passengers in Ile-de-France as an alternative to road transport, by building, maintaining and commercially operating 70 ports in Ile-de-France. Ports de Paris conducts initiatives to develop an innovative, multimodal approach to the supply chain, which help keep over a million lorries off the roads every year.

Working side by side in the economic interest group HAROPA, the ports of Paris, Rouen and Le Havre have joined forces to offer their customers the most suitable logistics solutions. They aim to increase the number of ports available and put together a coherent, European-scale line-up comprised of 2.7 million sq. m of warehouses, 40,000 direct jobs (probably 120,000 direct and indirect jobs combined), 130 million tonnes of maritime and river traffic, and over 14,000 hectares of land under management or awaiting development.