The port scene in Great Britain is a dynamic one. Domestic and international trade routes flow to all points of the compass, and not just containers.
It is often said that Felixstowe is the largest port in the UK, but this applies only to container traffic. In total cargo tonnage, it is the Port of London, which includes London Gateway, that heads the league table.
London handled 51.6 million tonnes of cargo in 2023, the most recent year for which the UK Government has official figures. That’s 12% of all UK major ports tonnage. In all, British ports handled a combined 436 million tonnes of cargo in that year – a figure which has shown a slow but steady decline over the past two decades, from a high of around 550Mt in the early years of the century.
London’s historical pre-eminence is obvious. However, the English East Coast twins of Grimsby and Immingham may surprise many casual observers by running a close second. The preponderance of heavy bulk handled on the Humber River pushed total cargo to 46Mt, 11% of UK port tonnage overall.
A further ten million tonnes were handled further upstream on the Humber, much of it inbound (overall the UK imports twice as much tonnage as it exports).
Inland logistics
Moving that cargo from the northern ports demands robust inland logistics. To that end, the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) railway project is underway to improve capacity east-west, across the north of England. Business interests and civic leaders have argued for greater freight provision and an even more ambitious programme than the existing £11.5bn (US$14.3bn) project.
Whether or not the TRU has enough freight capacity has not held back Immingham. Associated British Ports is on the cusp of development, which will boost Ro-Ro traffic. A tidal ferry port, designated the Immingham Eastern Ro-Ro Terminal, has been granted a governmental Development Consent Order, clearing the way for construction to begin this year.
“This approval marks a significant milestone in our mission to keep Britain trading,” said Henrik Pedersen, CEO of Associated British Ports. “The IERRT project is a key component of our strategy to strengthen the UK’s supply chains and improve trade connectivity, whilst also bringing substantial economic benefits, including the creation of hundreds of jobs during construction.” The planned completion is by 2026.
Immingham’s bulk operations may not easily lend themselves to decarbonisation, even if a big customer claims that ambition. Drax, named for the vast power generation complex in neighbouring Yorkshire, imports biomass through Immingham, in what the port calls the largest handling facility of its type in the world. Record or not, up to twelve trains a day, and up to 130,000 tonnes a week, are dispatched.
Strength in diversity
Unlike much of the UK infrastructure, port operations are geographically diverse. The ten biggest port complexes (by tonnage handled) are spread around the four nations of the United Kingdom. Between them, those top ten seaports accounted for 69% of all cargo traffic in 2023.
There is potential for London’s pole position as Britain’s pre-eminent port complex to be challenged. However, commercial rivalry may conspire to keep the capital on the crest of a wave for a while to come. It would be a tidal shift if the developing power struggle between Hutchison operated Felixstowe and DP World’s London Gateway container port were to trade positions on the intermodal volume chart.
The Suffolk container port (Felixstowe), and its Harwich neighbour, have been the dominant container port in the UK for decades. Further south, DP World has already announced a £1bn (US$1.24bn) expansion of London Gateway – their half of the Thames Freeport – a designation shared with Forth Ports Tilbury. DP World says it will be Britain’s largest container port within five years, overtaking Felixstowe in the process.
London Gateway already handles around 2m TEU annually. The expansion will see DP World add another two berths for ULCVs, extending the total quay length to 2,500m. It’s no coincidence that the new Gemini cooperation, between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, has made London Gateway its port of choice for the UK.
The new berths at London Gateway will help achieve a commitment to a pair of goals set by DP World – namely all-electric operations and a modal shift to rail freight. Ironically, although the port operator is committed to a net-zero goal by 2050, the ‘last mile’ rail connection is yet to be electrified by the UK infrastructure management agency.
Southampton incentive
Rail is high on the agenda for DP World, which also operates a container terminal at the Port of Southampton. Here, DP World has implemented an innovative scheme that pays an incentive to onward shippers who choose to move their containers inland by rail instead of road to a railhead within 140 miles. Those conditions target established intermodal hubs at places like Cardiff, Birmingham and East Midlands Gateway – the latter being the only inland freeport within the UK government designation.
Speaking to the incentive scheme, John Trenchard, Vice President of UK Commercial & Supply Chain at DP World, believed that a target of 40% share of containers moved by rail freight was possible in 2026. “At a time when customers face multiple challenges, including escalating geopolitical uncertainty, increased regulatory risk, and the urgent need to decarbonise supply chains, our Modal Shift Programme has proved highly attractive,” he said. “DP World is looking forward to working closely with the market to refine the initiative further, helping to ensure it delivers the best results for our customers and their operations, as well as our own. We are creating a solution that works for all partners across the supply chain.”
As a port, Southampton hosts adjacent operations of DP World and Associated British Ports, both served by tracks from the UK government-run infrastructure agency Network Rail. The latter body undertook an extensive upgrade programme on the approaches to Southampton, completed last year, which now supports over 170 weekly scheduled freight trains.
Football and rail
In Northwestern England an interesting development is unfolding around rail and the future of the Trafford Park rail facility in Manchester.
Trafford Park, traditionally an exclusively industrial quarter, linked to the port of Liverpool via the Manchester Ship Canal, is host to a busy intermodal rail freight hub. The terminal is next door to Manchester United, which is proving contentious. The football club is actively courting the land for stadium development, and the UK government is backing their proposals. The loss of the Trafford intermodal facilities, which would be compensated, may be offset by two other nearby development proposals.
The first of them may be from Peel Ports. The company has a controlling interest in much of the land and waterways in the region. It has ambitions to develop a new road, rail and waterway tri-modal terminal at “Port Salford” a short distance downstream. A more conventional development has been tabled by Tritax, the London-based real estate investment trust. Tritax already has a portfolio of logistics hubs, and now it has turned its attention to a site at Newton-le-Willows. Nominated Intermodal Logistics Park North, it’s conveniently equidistant from both Manchester and Liverpool, and at a confluence of rail and road corridors. If developed, the site could handle traffic from all over the UK.
Belfast investment
The UK of course also includes Northern Ireland, the part of the Island of Ireland that remains within British administration. Since Brexit, that has meant a land border with the EU, and a headache for trade. However, that has not hampered Belfast from maintaining its position as the tenth busiest port in the UK.
Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, is about to embark on what the Harbour Trust has called its biggest-ever investment programme. Shared across the maritime estate, more than £300m (US$372m) will be invested. Projects will include cargo handling with an emphasis on offshore wind, as well as cruise ship facilities and non-maritime repurposing of port land, particularly housing.
The Harbour Trust has also secured around £400,000 (US$496,000) from the UK Department for Transport’s Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund to evaluate autonomous port technology. As reported by WorldCargo News online in November last year, the funding is part of a UK industry-led initiative, aimed at encouraging the adoption of autonomous technology for terminal tractors in regional ports.
The project will see Aidrivers retrofit an existing terminal tractor at Belfast Container Terminal with its autonomous software. “Belfast Harbour’s goal is to drive regional prosperity by developing the port and estate, so that everyone benefits,” explained Joe O’Neill, Chief Executive of Belfast Harbour. “This strategy will see us optimise our strengths, innovate for growth, and invest in new opportunities that meet the needs of our customers, tenants and communities.”
Opportunies and obligations
The last word though goes to Associated British Ports. With a portfolio of 21 commercial harbours under their management, it’s hardly surprising that they look to the coming year with interest.
“In the UK the government is due to ramp up the pace on a range of policy areas,” a spokesperson told WorldCargo News. “Green energy development, industrial strategy, planning reform – this can be a boost to port development. We continue to see not just the opportunities but also the obligations – to drive investment and jobs – from the energy transition. Most fundamentally, Britain will remain an island nation, dependent on its ports for the vast majority of its physical trade with the world.”
Holyhead back on stream
The north Wales ferry terminal of Holyhead is one of the most important ports for trade within the UK. After the English Channel port of Dover, it is comfortably the busiest ferry terminal in the UK. Holyhead represents the shortest crossing between Great Britain and Dublin on the Irish mainland.
In early December 2024 storm Darragh badly damaged infrastructure Holyhead. Part of the structure of the ferry berth at Terminal 3 collapsed, rendering the berth unusable. The closure of the terminal over the Christmas period, which is the busiest time of the year for the port, put additional pressure on facilities as far away as Pembroke in South Wales and Cairnryan in Scotland. On 16 January Stena was able to resume sailings from Holyhead to Dublin.
Agricultural cargoes
On the east coast of Scotland, Forth Ports operates a portfolio of harbours on the River Forth, in addition to the Port of Dundee, and the not insubstantial property of Tilbury within the Thames Freeport in London. All of Forth Ports harbours on the River Forth are also enclosed by freeport status, including the Grangemouth container terminal and the Leith Docks in Edinburgh. At Leith, the company has been engaged in a long term regeneration of harbour land – originally dubbed Edinburgh’s Waterfront – alongside active port operations.
Forth Ports also operates a facility at Rosyth, on the north side of the estuary, where the main business is agricultural bulk cargo.
To help handle bulk loads, the “agri-hub” at the port has just taken delivery of ten tractors (agricultural tractors, not terminal tractors) and thirteen trailers, all British-built, primarily to support handling by agri-feed specialist Cefetra. That long-term client of the port has handled over two million tonnes of feedstuffs since the partnership started in 2020. “This significant investment in our agri-hub in Rosyth ensures that we are able to provide excellent haulage support for our important customer Cefetra with the large volume of agri-bulk imported each year,” said Andy Lamb, Asset Manager at the Port of Rosyth. “Coupled with our bespoke agri-bulk warehousing at the port, we are in the perfect location to ensure that the supplies reach the key farming and food market in Scotland.”
*This article first appeared in the February print issue of WorldCargo News