ISSUE 4 2010
UK NORTH WEST
27 Canal could be root of regional growth
Conceived as a massively expensive, 40- mile long thumbed-nose to the port of Liverpool, after over a century of existence the Manchester Ship Canal is being marketed as an integral part of the North-west’s maritime scene. It may have taken over 100 years, but it should be worth the wait.
For over a century, port and canal were deadly rivals. At least, that’s what popular history would have you believe, though a recent study by John Moore’s University suggest that even then, the net effect of the canal was to increase the port of Liverpool’s trade. Be that as it may, the ship canal prospered in the early 20th Century before going into a long decline, with commercial traffic on its upper reaches dwindling to almost nothing by the 1990s. But lately there has been a
revival. At last sharing a common ownership in Peel Ports with its long-time competition, the Port of Liverpool, the Canal has lately been handling a regular container service and Peel has very ambitious plans to build or reopen terminals along the full length of the waterway. Bulk as well as container terminals are
planned, the idea being to turn the canal into a multi-user linear port for its full length, bringing cargo-handling right into the heart of what is still one of the UK’s leading centres of industry and population. “It’s not just about containers, although they tend to capture the headlines” says Peel Ports’ head of business development, Stephen Carr. “Other traffic such as bulks are equally important.” Planned developments include
the Bridgewater container terminal at an existing coal import terminal just north of Ellesmere Port; Port Warrington - which has its own rail link waiting to be reinstated; and the ambitious 112-acre Port Salford multi-modal scheme. For the latter, Peel Ports is currently searching for a suitable ‘anchor’ tenant, a process that has been slowed by the recession but not stopped altogether.
Port Salford could be one of the UK’s leading inter-modal gateways, says Carr. “It’s got road, rail and waterway – the lot – plus planning permission for 1.5 sq ft of warehousing,” he says. It might suit a pallet operator with a lot of north-west business and looking to branch out into multi- modal operations, perhaps as a sub-hub, says Stephen Carr. Other, existing terminals along
the canal include Runcorn Docks, now a successful dry bulk facility and Ince, which has dry bulk and scrap berths and handles both coasters direct into Europe and smaller vessels feeding into deep- sea ships at the Port of Liverpool’s Seaforth terminal. So already, the canalside is
developing quite a thriving maritime industry, but Stephen Carr believes that much more could be achieved. “We’re taking the Port-centric warehousing
concept a step further. If you can actually have your port and warehouse in the major point of consumption, you can save on both the inbound and the outbound transportation leg.” The canal also shares with the
port of Liverpool the geographic advantages of the North-west of England. Peel Ports has been studying
the current traffic patterns on the canal. “It works well for Tesco and their bulk wine import operation to Irlam, but not necessarily for everyone.” The Tesco operation works
because the retailer bottles bulk containerloads of wine on the banks of the canal. But if the cargo needs to get somewhere only a little distance from the canal it can become more economic to truck from Liverpool rather than bear the cost of the canal feeder operation, if you end up incurring
Port group relieved over bridge
The news that the new coalition government will not - as widely feared - cancel the second Mersey crossing at Runcorn is a shot in the arm for the region’s freight industry, says the Mersey Maritime Group’s David Pendleton. “We’re very encouraged that the Government kept it on the agenda,” says Pendleton, who is business development director at the group which represents around 1,000 companies in the
freight and marine sector on Merseyside. Another piece of Government
good news was the cancelling of the swingeing increase in business rates for port users, which would have affected at least 70 local firms. There is a huge amount of
local knowledge and expertise in the region, says Pendleton. “Sometimes I just think we need reminding that it’s there. But you probably wouldn’t find the
same combination of expertise in freight forwarding, marine, law, insurance and so on anywhere else in the country.” MMG has also been redoubling
its educational efforts – anything from getting local schoolkids interested in the global supply chain with board games to training container terminal operators with state-of-the-art computerised simulators. There are problems with an ageing workforce and the
lure of other, supposedly more glamorous industries like IT for the younger generation, together with reductions in support for apprenticeships, but these obstacles can and must be overcome. The industry is just too important to Merseyside to ignore. “It’s not just the jobs that are directly created,” argues Pendleton. “In terms of what the industry supports, its economic impact on Merseyside is about £2bn, or 26,000 jobs.”
some trucking cost to and from the canal anyway. However, there is a banana-
shaped swathe from about Burnley down to Stafford from where you can get two return trips per truck shift from Irlam, but not from Liverpool. It could also suit some big
importers to have a stockpile of goods at a canal side terminal and use a short distance trucking operation rather than a rather longer one from Liverpool. In some cases, it might be possible to set up a dedicated stock-holding or warehousing operation on the canal in a way that might not be possible in a major seaport. At the moment, the canal
container link is being maintained by two ex-Rhine ‘dumb’ barges and a tug, though something more bespoke is more than likely as volumes grow. While the tug works well enough
on the canal, sometimes a bit more oomph is needed on the fast-flowing estuary for the last couple of miles in and out of the port of Liverpool. Peel Ports has experimented with putting the Coastal Containers 200teu ships normally used on the Dublin run into Irlam at times of heavy demand. Otherwise, the canal is well
able to cope with any likely future demands. “One thing we may look at is increasing navigational aids so we can transit the canal by night,” says Carr. There are a number of swing
bridges along the route and the canal operator is anxious not to have to close them during the day any more than is absolutely necessary. While in the past, the passage of ships rarely troubled road users in the area, that could all be about to change.
The Heysham alternative
Peel Ports’ portfolio includes the port of Heysham. While Liverpool captures a large hunk of the Irish Sea trade, Heysham is particularly well suited to business from North Lancashire and also areas outside the North-west such as Yorkshire. Completion of the recently- approved Lancaster bypass will make it even more attractive, says Peel Ports’ Stephen Carr. Current operators are DFDS –
who took over the Norfolk Line Irish Sea operations to Dublin and Belfast this year - Seatruck
to Warrenpoint and Larne and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company to Douglas. Heysham would also be
in a good position to handle any windfarm development in the Irish Sea, as there are few other ports in the area that are free from locks.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32