HUMBER\\\


The HumberPort initiative has been awaited by the trade for some time, says ABP Grimsby and Immingham port director, John Fitzgerald. “There are a lot of port organisations in the Humber, and in fact in Immingham alone we handle every type of traffic, except passengers. We cover the whole spectrum,” he says. While the Humber may not have


always publicised itself to the best advantage, as a port it has been very successful, not least because there are so many different terminals vying for business, he believes: “We all market ourselves strongly, but what we’ve been lacking is the common theme – the river.” John Fitzgerald’s was one of the


voices arguing strongly for the new organisation to be called HumberPort, without the ‘s’. It’s vital that the region emulates other successful port areas and markets itself as a single port entity. There are signs that the region


is beginning to pull together, he continues. One important recent success was the reduction in tolls on the Humber Bridge, which has reduced the cost of a return trip for a truck from £30 to £15, and which had been called for by the Chamber of commerce, local industry and MPs. It just goes to show what can be achieved when both banks pull together. HumberPort isn’t the first trans-


esturine partnership; the chemical industries have also collaborated in Humberside Chemical Focus, for


Issue 4 2012 Cars drive Grimsby’s growth plans


instance. Contrary to what some have


commentators said, huge


investments have been made in ports on both sides of the Humber, insists John Fitzpatrick. “We ourselves have invested quarter if a billion pounds, and there have been major investments


also by Cobelfret,


Humberside Sea Terminal and even some of the smaller wharves,” he points out. “And, we’ve just made a very major investment in a new car terminal at Grimsby, despite the recession.” It is true that the Humberside ports


have not tried to emulate Teesport and Liverpool in trying to develop deepsea


container capacity, but


deepsea is not the Humber’s niche, Fitzgerald argues. “Our location has huge benefits, but because of our tidal nature, we will never be a deepsea port.” Humberside is also rather too close to Felixstowe to develop into a deepsea hub – unless lorry road user charging makes road transport much more expensive. Also, unlike Liverpool which has developed a Transatlantic niche, Humberside is an east coast port and therefore up against much stiffer competition from the east coast ports south of the Wash. As for the Humberside ports’ ability


to develop port centric distribution, again careful thought needs to be given to their market niche. Quite apart from the fact that he doesn’t wholly buy into the port centric


GBA celebrates quarter century


The GBA Group celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with several events throughout the UK including a Medieval Banquet at Lumley Castle, Chester-Le-Street on 4 May for staff, customers and suppliers in the North. Grimsby headquartered GBA


provides logistics solutions to the automotive, shipping and renewable energy markets. Formed in 1987 as GB Agencies serving short sea car carriers in the North of England, in 1991 GBA diversified into vehicle terminal management and later into specialist stevedoring, liner agency, shipping and forwarding, pdi operations and car transportation. Today, GBA stands for ‘Great British Automotive’, employing over 550 staff covering 15 UK locations with further operations in Turkey and India. Group managing director Captain


concept – the percentage of business in the UK that is truly port centric is actually quite small, he suggests - John Fitzgerald also points out that unlike Teesport, for example, the Humber ports themselves don’t have massive land banks available. That said, ABP is working with companies such as a food firm on setting up distribution facilities just outside Immingham. “The port itself is pretty full, but there is a lot of land around us,” he notes. “And there are certain niches where port centric could work.”


Cars, though, are the big story on


the south bank of the Humber at the moment. Grimsby’s new car terminal, just outside the lock, should be complete and operational in summer 2013. VW Audi, Toyota and Peugeot Citroen are already customers; there could well be others when the new facility is operational, says Fitzpatrick. Grimsby has the advantage of land


availability, but was restricted in the size of vessel it could handle, thanks to the 1850-built lock. The port and its car trade customers did consider


building a new facility in Immingham, but the car people rather like Grimsby. “Immingham is a multi-commodity port; in Grimsby, though, they could have a virtually dedicated car operation,” Fitzpatrick says. The new terminal will allow


ship size to handle the larger intra- European vessels. It wouldn’t be able to handle deepsea carriers of around 6,000 unit capacity, but that isn’t Grimsby’s niche. Although cars will be the main


traffic, the terminal could also handle offshore wind traffic and even possibly trailer loads of car spares. Over in Immingham, planning


permission has been obtained for two large biomass power stations. The port is also celebrating its centenary by rebuilding a fertilizer terminal for Yara – a business which has its roots in the Fisons factory established in the port in the 1950s. The £6.5m facility will handle activity like bagging. Future plans include more facilities


29


for renewable energy, expansion of the container terminal and further liquid bulk terminals. Immingham also needs to be mindful of the potential that offshore wind could bring, says John Fitzpatrick.. “When that kicks off, there could be a huge amount of project cargo.”


Sam Judah said: “I am delighted and proud to have had the support of


all our staff, customers and


suppliers over the past 25 years. ‘We owe much of our success to their hard work, commitment and co- operation - it is only right to celebrate this tremendous milestone with them. “As well as celebrating this milestone, we


important have


nominated ‘When you wish upon a star’ as our Charity of the Year. Our aim is to raise enough money to send 25 seriously ill children, one for each year, to Lapland in December to experience the magic of Christmas.”


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