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Issue 8 2018 - Freight Business Journal


///NEWS


Five-point plan to turn UK ports into growth stars


The UK Major Ports Group (UKMPG) has launched a five- point plan to build growth in the sector. It calls


for policies that will


ensure the UK has ports that can continue to thrive in a changing world; promote; create a positive planning and development framework; deliver a balanced environmental approach; and ensure that the UK is well placed to develop the ports of the future. The group says that its


members invest more than half a billion pounds in the UK every year but are ambitious for more. UKMPG chair and chief


executive of Forth Ports, Charles Hammond, commented:


“This


is the time for ports. The current focus on Brexit and the UK’s trade with the world has shone a light on ports and their importance to the UK.” Moreover, he added, the


industry was “on the cusp of major technological change to radically transform the business models of major ports and many of our customers and supply chain partners. So, it’s never been


a more important or exciting time to be in the ports sector. “The members of the UK Major


Ports Group are ambitious to invest more and grow the £7.6bn of value we directly contribute as well as the vital enabling role facilitating trade we provide for the rest of the economy. That’s best achieved by industry and government working together and today’s five-point plan identifies the key areas where that needs to happen.” Addressing a UKMPG


reception to launch the report on 19 November, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Andy MacDonald said that ports faced many issues due to Brexit. He shared many peoples’ “trepidation about the future” although he took some solace in the agreement recently agreed between UK and EU negotiators, even if it was only “a temporary fix”. The country faced “significant challenges in the weeks ahead,” he said. Trade needed to be


“hardwired into public policy and infrastructure decisions,” he


added. At the gathering, Charles


Hammond pointed out the huge economic contribution made to the UK economy by the ports sector - £7.6bn – and moreover one that had been growing by 25% over the past few years. This was one industry that had no problem raising


capital for complex


infrastructure, he said. Every job created inside a port gate created six outside it, Hammond added. However, despite ports’ huge


wealth creating power, little of it remained in the places where it was created; coastal communities were among some of the most economically hard-pressed in the country, he said. He also called on the


government to make the planning regime simpler and for a policy board to be established to help make improvements in the industry. Shipping minister Nusrat


Ghani said that UK ports were at the forefront of efforts to reduce emissions and that she was working to address diversity and gender issues in the industry.


ABP makes room to grow in Cardiff


ABP South Wales is spending £400,000 to


increase open


storage at its Port of Cardiff. The investment will increase the amount of space by 13,000sq ſt by redeveloping and resurfacing a quayside area on North Side, Queen Alexandra Dock. The area will be used to


accommodate growing volumes of timber, steel, and dry bulk


cargoes. In 2017, over 93,000 cubic metres of timber and 81,000 tonnes of steel were discharged by ABP South Wales stevedores. Head of commercial, ABP


South Wales, Ralph Windeatt, said: “The new storage area will mainly be utilised by customers that import cargo related to the construction sector across


New look for Newport port


Sanjeev Gupta, owner of up of energy, mining, engineering and logistics conglomerate GFG Alliance, has unveiled a £5m investment plan to revitalise Bird Port on the river Usk at Newport. It follows the announcement last July that the SIMEC Infrastructure arm of GFG had agreed to buy the facility along with its Cargo Services stevedoring arm. Mr Gupta said the facility,


which was first opened in 1900 would become a “vital piece of infrastructure” underpinning new industrial activity, including steelmaking and green energy generation in the area.


SIMEC plans to double the


capacity of Bird Port by upgrading and reopening the mothballed second berth. It offers undercover storage


facilities totalling over 160,000 sq ſt and is equipped with a double set of gantry cranes spanning the dock, enabling it to handle high- value steel products. According to a statement, it is


South East Wales’s last remaining commercial river port, as well as the only fully-undercover cargo- handling facility on Britain’s west coast that can handle sea-going vessels in all weathers. It also has a covered rail link.


The port is adjacent to Gupta’s


Liberty Steel Newport rolling mill where he plans to install an electric arc furnace for


recycling scrap


metal. There are also plans to create new facilities to handle shipments of scrap steel destined for recycling in South Wales and for 50,000sq ſt of waterfront warehousing along with dredging. At present the port handles up


to 30 ships a month but SIMEC Bird Port aims to increase this to over 40, handling cargoes such as steel coil for the automotive industry and rod and bar for the building sector, bulks and agricultural materials.


Wales, the Midlands, and South West England.”


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