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Issue 1 2019 - Freight Business Journal


multi-storey as part of a £50


million investment to boost storage capacity by 14,000 car spaces and has plans to do more. The bigger multi-storeys are five storeys high (plus the ground floor) which, Thomas says is “the sweet


spot” as


anything taller would have to be made out of stronger, and more expensive materials.


“Geography is important. Southampton is close to the export production points and the import markets and there is little or no deviation for ships heading for northern Europe. And there are no lock gates here, so there is 24-hour access.” More bulk traffic can be


stored and handled at the port by, for example, switching from


bringing in supplies to barges carrying ship’s waste out, not to mention all the tradespeople doing laundry or repairing slot machines, or ship’s services firms like Ecosubsea who carry out hull cleaning by robot. The headlong growth


in containerships has also challenged ABP as the harbour authority. The port will come to a


point in the future where berth capacity becomes the pinch- point, but that has not yet been reached and in the meantime there is much that can be achieved by being creative with existing assets. ABP is a major cargo handler


Ships used in Southampton’s


car trades have been getting remorselessly bigger – just as


they have in containers


and cruise ships – which has in turn challenged the port operator in coping with ever- greater volumes of wheeled cargoes. The port handles 14 of the world’s major car shipping lines – which is pretty much all of them – with around 1,250- 1,300 vessel calls a year. Thomas explains:


flat storage to silos for grain. Bulk business in the wider port of Southampton is expected to grow in coming years with the plans for a new ultra-low- sulphur diesel plant at Fawley refinery, though that is outside ABP’s operational area. And while cruise ships


are not thought of as freight generators, vessels that turn around in Southampton generate a huge amount of activity – anything from trucks


at Southampton in its own right, with 70 full-time staff, plus agency labour. Most of them work on the automotive trade on behalf of four of the major carriers – UECC, Grimaldi, Neptune Lines and K Line, contributing around 40% of the port’s total traffic, which ABP estimates at around 900,000 cars a year, making Southampton the number one UK for this traffic. It is also the number one port in the UK and Northern Europe for cruises, and the UK number two for containers. Like its tenants, ABP faces a


tight local labour market. While not a wealthy city, by southern England standards, it does have a very low unemployment rate.


The best way to counter this, says Thomas, is to get involved in apprenticeships and training and, essentially, taking a “grow your own” approach to workforce development. The fluctuating and seasonal nature of much port work is in some senses an advantage; some tasks are suited to older folk who welcome the chance to keep active but don’t want to work full time. Some people actually welcome night shifts, as it fits in well with their family responsibilities. ABP is not directly involved


in rail terminal operation in Southampton itself – Solent Stevedores and Freightliner


run the port’s two terminals – though, by a quirk of history, the ABP Southampton team does run the Hams Hall inland site near Birmingham. (The arrangement has its roots in the former ABP Connect logistics arm, which shared a director with ABP Southampton.) However, ABP sees containers on rail as a promising market and it wouldn’t rule out getting involved in such activities in Southampton itself, says Thomas. Meanwhile, it takes a keen


interest in developments at the existing rail terminals, including Network Rail’s scheme to extend the holding


sidings at Redbridge to take longer trains, as well as the improvements to Solent Stevedores’ site. Roads have not been


forgotten, either, and ABP has worked with the city council to rework one of the main pinch points on the dual carriageway leading to the docks, contributing both cash and land. Work is now going on to improve access to gate 20 – the main entry point for containers – and, in the longer term, improving the situation at the end of the M271 motorway and the M3/A34 junction – the latter in conjunction with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership.


DP World: Living in interesting times


It’s been an interesting few months for DP World, the operator of Southampton container terminal. As UK commercial director, Aart Hille Ris Lambers explains, the issues started in June when the rival port of Felixstowe implemented its ‘next generation’ IT system – which promptly fell over. Initially, some ships diverted


to Southampton and London Gateway, which however didn’t in itself cause too many problems, says Lambers. “It was only in September and October that we started to get really full.” It was a combination of issues – the peak aſter the August bank holiday, and a large FE2 service vessel arriving at the same time. “It was no one single thing – it was a number of things coming together,” Lambers states. Another side-effect of the Felixstowe problems were that


UK issue; to some extent there are shortages throughout Europe.” However, the problems in the


UK may have been exacerbated by the disappearance of Polish drivers to now more lucrative pastures such as Germany, following the Pound’s fall. (So great was the influx at one stage that the port has bilingual English/ Polish signs.) Since then, Felixstowe has


shipping lines were struggling to get empty boxes out, while at the same time dropping some calls in Europe and relying on other ports, including Southampton, to pick up the slack. Also, as the storage areas at Southampton and London Gateway started to fill up, that in turn forced DP World


to put boxes into areas where ideally they shouldn’t have been, with export containers getting in the way of imports, or vice-versa. Fortunately, DP World


Southampton was able to divert a ship to its sister port at London Gateway, giving it a crucial week’s breathing-space in which to get


back on track. Dwell times while boxes waited


for trucks to move them out of port went up to five days. However, Lambers believes


that some of the problems with container haulage have been overstated. That said, “there is definitely a problem with ageing


drivers, which does need to be addressed, and there were times when hauliers had equipment lying idle because they didn’t have drivers.” Waiting times


for haulage


in Southampton have since reduced to more manageable levels, he adds. Also: “It’s not just a


managed to get its IT problems sorted out – at least to some extent – and things in Southampton have been running “pretty smoothly” says Lambers This is despite stronger than normal import volumes than would be expected in late November and December – possibly businesses stocking up in anticipation of Brexit-related problems, or maybe just the general strength of the economy. If there is a lesson to be


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