The award was presented to the Port at a glittering ceremony held in Beijing.
The prestigious AFSCA awards honour the respective winning organizations for demonstrating leadership as well as consistency in service quality, innovation, customer relationship management and reliability. The award to the Port of Felixstowe is in recognition of the high quality of service and levels of productivity achieved at the UK’s largest container port.
Commenting on the award, Clemence Cheng, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, owners of the Port of Felixstowe, said:
“We are very pleased to receive this award in recognition of our achievements. This would not have been possible without the strong support of our customers and the relentless pursuit of operational excellence and customer service by our workforce. Whilst this award recognises our achievements to date, we will continue to improve on the level of customer service that has made Port of Felixstowe the Port of Britain. With our excellent location and a range of inland transport options by road, rail and short-sea shipping, that cannot be matched, we continue to offer importers and exporters the quickest, cheapest and most efficient way of moving cargo into, and out of, the UK.”
Greg Knowler, on behalf of the organisers of the award, said:
“Instead of using a panel of judges, Asia readers are polled in a two-round voting process in the AFSCA awards. More than 70 percent of our readers are shippers and forwarders so in effect, the Port of Felixstowe was voted Best Container Terminal Europe by its own customers. To be honoured by the very people who pay for its services is evidence that even in difficult economic conditions in a highly competitive sector, the Port of Felixstowe continues to provide the kind of quality Asia’s shippers have come to expect.”
Asia is the largest trading partner for the Port of Felixstowe and the port is continuing to invest in new facilities that reinforce its position as the Port of Britain. New Berths 8&9, the only berths in the country capable of handling the next generation of ultra-large container ships, opened in late 2011 and the Port’s third rail terminal is due to open in June. The new North Rail Terminal will double rail capacity at what is already the country’s largest intermodal rail facility.