Shipping lines that fled the French port of Le Havre last month because of labor stoppages are expected to return by the end of the month, the port authority said Tuesday.

Andre Graillot, director general of the port, said at a news conference in Paris that several regular lines that had canceled service to Le Havre had either already returned to the port or were expected to begin regular calls by the end of July.The list includes the Vessel Sharing Agreement, made up of Sea-Land Service Inc., Nedlloyd Lines, P&O Containers and Orient Overseas Container Line, which interrupted service to Le Havre on June 21 and is expected back on Tuesday.

The port estimates that 15 percent of its container traffic fled because of the labor strife and that almost all of it has now returned. Officials say they do not have an estimate of how much the port lost in revenue because of the traffic disruptions.

The SLCS group of Canada Maritime and OOCL, with service to Montreal, already has returned to Le Havre after leaving for Antwerp, Belgium, on June 19.

Also returning is the so-called ACE consortium (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Neptune Orient Lines and OOCL), which canceled one regular call to Le Havre but reinstated it for Saturday. Maersk Inc., which pulled its North American service from the port for three weeks, will return Sunday.

The first line to leave Le Havre after two three-day strikes in June was Compagnie Maritime Belge, which calls every 10 days as part of its trade to West Africa. It left at the beginning of June but just resumed calling Le Havre. The Trio line, made up of Hapag-Lloyd AG, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Nippon Yusen Kaisha, skipped calls in June and suspended service at the beginning of July, but it is now back at the port.

Dockworkers and stevedoring employers at the port signed an agreement 10 days ago aimed at ending the labor strife.

Mr. Graillot said he was "surprised" at the attachment to Le Havre shown by shipping companies in the face of the port's labor problems.

Stevedoring employers agreed to hire 200 more dockworkers as salaried workers in exchange for a pay freeze until the end of next year, more flexible working hours and guarantees of five days advance warning of strikes and negotiations to try to avoid them. The first 67 dockworkers were hired this week.

Claude Pigoreau, president of the association of stevedoring employers, the Groupement des Employeurs de Main d'Oeuvre, said the decision to hire the dockworkers is a "bet that traffic will increase at the port."

He said stevedoring companies continue to lose money and that in order to justify the hiring of new employees, traffic must increase by about 150,000 20-foot equivalent units annually.

Le Havre has 9 percent of the market share of the six largest Northern European ports. This has fallen by 25 percent to 30 percent since 1989, mainly because of labor problems that began in 1991 when the French government announced its cargo-handling reform.

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