After several months in delays, Peel Ports’ £400 million (U.S. $494.9 million) Liverpool2 container terminal officially opened for business last week, according to a statement from the port terminal operator.
The Port of Liverpool last week officially opened its new 400 million British pound (U.S. $494.9 million at today’s exchange rate) container terminal to commercial vessel traffic, terminal operator Peel Ports said in a statement.
The much anticipated Liverpool2 terminal was originally expected to cost £300 and scheduled to open by then end of 2015, but unexpected delays and overruns pushed the date back and the total cost up.
Peel Ports has declined to comment on the delays, but the media reports speculated earlier this year they may have been due to “civil engineering difficulties.”
According to the terminal operator, the new deep water Liverpool2 facility is expected to complement the existing Royal Seaforth Container Terminal at the Port of Liverpool, with each terminal having a handling capacity of around 1 million containers per year. Liverpool currently handles the largest volume of transatlantic cargo – 45 percent market share – and the only major container port in the north or west of the United Kingdom.
Built in response to changing trade patterns and the ever-increasing use of mega-vessels to transport more container cargo, Liverpool2 is capable of handling the biggest containerships in the world.
The 16-hectare terminal site features a new 854-meter quay wall, five “megamax” ship-to-shore (STS) transfer cranes and 12 quayside container handling cranes (CRMGs). Peel Ports plans to eventually add another three STS cranes and 10 CRMGs at an anticipated cost of £100 million.
Peel Ports said it intends to grow the Port of Liverpool’s share of the UK container market from around 8 percent currently to between 15 percent and 20 percent.
At present, however, no direct liner services call at Liverpool from Asia and only three container services call the port from North America, according to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting. Competing ports Felixstowe and Southampton, by comparison, have a respective nine and seven direct liner connections with Asia, plus a host of other global container, roll-on/roll-off and multi-purpose services that call their docks.
Peel Ports contends the Port of Liverpool will attract more cargo business once Liverpool2 is complete thanks to its central location in the UK. Being closer to consumers, shippers would be able to save money on inland trucking and rail services. Liverpool2 will be connected to road, rail, and the national import center at Port Salford via the Manchester Ship Canal.
The port, however, will have to convince shippers and carriers alike that this is enough of a reason to divert containerships considerably off route from other Northern European destination ports, which may prove difficult in an industry that isn’t exactly quick to change course.
The first phase of the £1.5 billion post-Panamax London Gateway terminal on the River Thames, for example, has been open for two years now, but has yet to attract any Asian container services aside from Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Australia Express loop, which calls Singapore en route from Oceania to the Middle East and Europe.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era for the Port of Liverpool,” Peel Ports CEO Mark Whitworth said at the opening ceremony. “Our investment will help global shippers to transport cargo more efficiently to their end destination with lower costs, congestion and carbon emissions. Liverpool is in the right location, providing state-of-the art facilities and technology, and offers a real competitive advantage with a shorter supply chain and providing an all-water route right to the heart of the UK via the Manchester Ship Canal.
“Liverpool 2 will create a new trading gateway in the UK,” he added. “We are already exploring and succeeding in creating new opportunities for UK exporters, having recently signed a significant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a strategic alliance aimed at facilitating international trade and generating new business by promoting trade routes between Liverpool and the west coast of South America via the Panama Canal.”
“Exporting is vital to the economic health of our nation,” said UK Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox, who was in attendance at the ceremony. “This investment at Liverpool2 will boost crucial cargo capacity, create local jobs and is yet another sign that the UK is open for business with the world.
“Liverpool is ideally located to increase our trade with countries west of the UK, including the U.S., Canada and South America, and this new port opens up even more opportunities with new markets and export destinations for UK businesses.”
The new Liverpool2 facility is expected to create 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in the northwestern region of the UK, stimulate further growth in the area and help to rebalance the UK economy, according to Peel Ports.
Port of Liverpool opens new $495m container terminal
