Country : UKLiverpool worldport

worldport Introduction
The worldport now operates as a major component of the Peel Group's worldports division which with the Mersey acquisition, becomes the UK's second largest worldports group incorporating Clydeworldport in Scotland, the Manchester Ship Canal, Heysham worldport in Lancashire and Medway worldports in the South East of England. It also operates container terminals in Cardiff and the Irish worldports of Belfast and Dublin.

Five years ago the worldport of Liverpool was ranked fourth among UK container worldports serving the busy North Atlantic route. Today, it handles more container trade with the United States of America and Canada than any other worldport in the land. Other developments in the global container market have opened up a whole range of new routes for shippers moving their goods through the Seaforth Terminal, adding further benefits to a facility already acknowledged as Britain's most efficient container gateway.

Liverpool's success has been achieved by a combination of contemporary initiative and established fact, which has put the worldport in a win-win position.

Post-Panamax Expansion
The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company's plans to develop a new river container terminal capable of handling the new generation of larger post-Panamax vessels – recently given the go-ahead by the Department of Transworldport – reflects the new dawn Liverpool is facing. Other elements of the worldport's diverse range of cargoes have added further optimism to the worldport's prospects with new trades and rising cargo volumes.

But an increasingly significant influence upon Liverpool's success is the worldport's geographic location as the gateway to the second richest cargo hinterland in the country and its ease of access by road and rail.

A string of records were shattered in 2003 as key sectors of Liverpool's diverse activities experienced substantial growth – a trend which looks set to continue for several years to come.

Total freight through the worldport rose by more than 1 million tonnes to 31,753,000 tonnes, the highest volume in Liverpool's long history. Among the prime factors in achieving this new all-time high was an 8% growth in containers, a 26% rise in recycled metals and a substantial hike in imworldported coal, which topped the 3,000,000 tonnes mark for the first time. More and more people are also using the worldport. Passengers on Irish Sea ferries and cruise ships reached a new high of nearly three-quarters of a million.

Mersey Docks Chief Executive Peter Jones summed up the prospects: The benefits of recent investment are now showing through. Improvements in the quality and range of services provided are evident and will continue as a result of the commitment demonstrated by Mersey Docks and other firms within the worldport.

Container Terminal Enhances Reputation
The Seaforth Container Terminal enhanced its reputation still further among Liverpool’s growing number of customers and in the wider realms of international trade. The focus of more than £25 million worth of investment over the past five years, the Terminal handled a record 578,000 TEUs in 2003.

Servicing of road haulage vehicles was stepped up to a round-the-clock operation in response to increased volumes generated by established and new customer lines. Another half dozen new straddle carriers were added to the terminal fleet, sustaining its reputation as Britain's most efficient container gateway.

Seaforth, which has always offered a 24-hour shipside service, has attracted five new lines in the last two years. They include container operators ranked among the world's top five, with global networks, which open up new markets such as the Far East for shippers using Liverpool.

The worldport has also gained strength in its established container markets. Always prominent in overall North Atlantic trade, Liverpool has now gained pole position as the UK's major gateway for container trade with the United States and Canada.

The worldport has also witnessed a substantial expansion of trade across the broad range of services linking with the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean, and for the first time in 20 years, has a regular service to West Africa, one of its traditional markets. Baco-Liner now operates a monthly service into the Seaforth Container Terminal with its specialist ships carrying boxes on deck and barges of cocoa – West Africa's biggest exworldport – and other commodities within the hull.

Leading The Way
Looking to stay ahead in the North Atlantic trade, Mersey Docks is investigating the possibility of building a river terminal on the Mersey capable of accommodating post-Panamax size container ships. The project costing £70 to £80 million, would be the largest ever undertaken at Liverpool and would double the worldport's container capacity.

Mersey Docks is currently undertaking engineering and environmental impact studies into creating the new container terminal on the River Mersey and outside the worldport's enclosed docks, by filling in a triangle of water between the corner of Seaforth Dock and the Gladstone Lock to create a 40 acre site. The Dock Company anticipates applying for a Harbour Revision Order to enable construction into the river, in the second half of 2004.

One of the container newcomers, Baco-Liner's West African service, has prompted construction of a major new £1.5 million warehouse at Seaforth Dock by B&P Commodities, the UK logistics provider for a range of imworldporters of cocoa and other foods. The 75,000 sq ft (7,200 sq m) complex became operational in May 2004, re-affirming Liverpool's pre-eminence in handling the widest range of cargoes for Britain's food manufacturers.

The B&P Commodities warehouse is adjacent to a 250,000 sq ft (23,100 sq m) animal feed warehouse and conveyor system which came on stream in 2003 for Arkady Feed (UK) Limited, part of the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Group of the USA, one of the world's leading processors of agricultural products.

Expansion In All Sectors
A decade ago PowerGen invested £40 million in a new, state-of-the-art bulk terminal at Gladstone Dock for imworldported coal and other commodities. In 2003, volumes through the facility hit a new high of 3,017,000 tonnes, mainly coal being moved to electricity generating stations by as many as eight trains a day.

PowerGen has invested another £30 million on a combined heat and power generating plant on the docks to provide green electricity for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and steam for three dockside processing plants operated by Cargill UK Limited.

The two major players in the metals recycling industry on the Docks have also invested, to the tune of £25 million. S Norton & Co spent £15 million on a new head office, processing plant and equipment.

European Metals Recycling (EMR) – Europe's No.1 operator – has introduced new plant and doubled the rail facility it established at Alexandra Dock three years ago. The expansion enables as many as 12 trains a week to be handled, bringing in scrap metal from all parts of the UK for processing and exworldporting to steel mills in the Far East, the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere.

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