One of the prominent ports in Europe, it has around 30 shipping lines operating from its location offering in the region of 90 services to and from 400 ports around the world. Crucially, Felixstowe provides some of the deepest water close to the open sea to that of any European port, and together with its unrivalled rail and road links, provides unparalleled flexibility and many key benefits to its customers such as time savings, cost reductions and minimised risk of congestion. Mega ships can fit anywhere in the port rotation of major services with minimum deviation from the main shipping routes, and at just two hours from the pilot station. Continuing to build on their services, the port completed and opened a significant extension to its Berth 9 in 2015. The 190m extension increases the port’s capability to work two of the world’s largest containerships simultaneously. The combined lengths of Berths 8 & 9 now total 920m, and are equipped with 10 ship-to-shore gantry cranes, taking overall berth length at the port to almost 4km. Berths 8 & 9 were the first in the country to handle the latest generation of giant container ships – with more than eighty vessels of 18,000+ TEUs received in the last year alone – ensuring UK exports reach overseas markets in the most efficient way possible. The cranes working the berths are capable of processing vessels with containers stacked 10-high and 24-wide on deck, with Felixstowe operating 36 cranes in the port as a whole. A further upgrade was also made during the year to the North Rail terminal, one of three rail terminals at the port, capable of handling up to 1 million TEUs a year and 40 freight trains per day in each direction. The terminal also provides nine working roads and the handling of 30-wagon length intermodal trains without the requirement to split and shunt. This important rail development was co-financed by the European Union’s TEN-T programme. Logistics also got a boost with planning consent given for the first phase of the Port of Felixstowe Logistics Park; 1.45 million square feet of modern, purpose-built warehousing to be constructed on a 68-acre site within the port’s boundaries. The approval covers the first four warehouses, comprising nearly 1 million square feet of storage space and occupying 51 acres of the total site, with the largest being 360,000 square feet. Furthermore, the 32nd daily rail freight service was introduced earlier this year. Operated by Freightliner, the new service departs from the port’s Central Rail Terminal initially running between Felixstowe and Rotherham, and ultimately, to Doncaster upon completion of works at the site. In 2015, the port handled 936,000 TEUs by rail saving well over 100 million road miles by HGVs. In the second week of May, Felixstowe broke its own record for the number of containers handled by rail in a single day when 2,607 TEUs (4,185 TEUs) were processed via its three rail terminals. The previous record of 2,505 TEUs was set in October 2015. Felixstowe has been at the forefront of the industry with many “firsts” and key initiatives, and continuing as such, confirmed that it will offer a container weighing service to ensure UK shippers are able to comply with new international regulations. As of 1st July, an amendment to the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Convention will require every export container carrying cargo to have its weight verified before being loaded. The service will be available to containers arriving either by road or rail and help to avoid the potential disruption to export supply chains. Felixstowe is on target to deliver an annual container handling capacity of 6 million TEUs by 2020, and is forecast to deliver an additional 2 million TEUs within the Harwich Haven by 2030. Harwich Haven offers further significant deep-water capability delivered with the development of the new Harwich International Port Container Terminal at Bathside Bay. Consent was granted back in 2006 for a port facility with 1.4km of quay, 110 hectares of land and a dredged depth alongside of 15m. Serviced by 11 quay cranes, the state-of-the-art terminal will have a capacity of 2.14 million TEUs along with a dedicated rail facility. With 8 million TEUs of capacity per annum, serviced by 51 quayside cranes along more than 5km of quay, the port of Felixstowe’s position as the UK’s most significant container handling hub will be maintained offering world-beating port operations.
Thursday, January 9, 2025
