Container volumes shift from smaller to bigger UK ports

VOLUMES are leaving smaller British ports back to Felixstowe and Southampton, Britain's busiest container ports, according to Department for Transport statistics, reports London's Financial Times.

"There's some evidence of traffic concentrating at the major ports," said Paul Davey, head of corporate affairs at Hong Kong's Hutchison Ports, which owns the big Felixstowe terminal in Suffolk, 70 miles north east of London.

The trend has continued this year, according to Patrick Walters, commercial director of Associated British Ports, which owns Southampton and smaller ports. Southampton experienced growth resume at the end of last year and continue this year, he said.

"It is fair to say that we have not seen the same level of recovery in our regional ports, particularly on the Humber, as far as containers are concerned," Mr Walters said.

But some smaller ports do well, according to Simon Bird, chief executive of the Bristol Port Company, who said his port's container volumes for 2009 had been similar to the year before, although the port had seen a large fall in car traffic.

Bristol benefits from its proximity to the Midlands, where retailers and distributors tend to base logistics operations.

David Robinson, chief executive of PD Ports, which operates the ports of Hartlepool and Teesport near Middlesbrough, said his company, which hosts a big import centre for supermarket chain Asda, had seen container volumes 19 per cent higher in 2009 - although its overall import units were well down.

"We're not seeing volumes migrating to the deep-sea ports," he said.

What is emerging, said the FT, is a reversal of a trend from 2004, when congestion at Felixstowe and Southampton prompted British importers to discharge cargo at Rotterdam and transship it via smaller ports closer to where cargo wants to go. The shift produced growth rates of 15 per cent or more for some smaller ports.

But with congestion a memory in the downturn, importers now seek to cuts costs by using bigger ports, said Mr Walters. "Feedering or transshipment involves a second move, which adds to cost," he said.

But Charles Hammond, chief executive of Forth Ports, insisted customers preferred smaller ports. Figures for Felixstowe and Southampton, he said, were being boosted by a shift in transshipment towards the large English ports encouraged by the weak pound.

"I don't think what is happening is at our expense. The deep-sea ports in the UK are getting more transshipment business at the expense of the continent," Mr Hammond said.

(Source: www.schednet.com)