LONDON: The owner of Britain’s busiest port complex is investing £50m to expand as it bets on an increase in UK trade following Brexit. ABP will double the capacity of two container terminals on the Humber at Hull and Immingham, in northern England, after a 41 per cent growth in volumes since 2013.
The UK’s largest port operator is buying four new cranes for Hull to increase terminal capacity to 250,000 twenty foot equivalent units (teu) per year, the standard measurement of container. Immingham will be enlarged and have new equipment to bring capacity to 300,000 teu. Together, those ports handled almost 262,000 teu last year. “We have seen significant growth at our Humber container terminals in recent years and all the indications are that this will continue despite Brexit,” said ABP Humber director Simon Bird, calling the investments “a huge vote of confidence in the economy of the north of England at this crucial time”. ABP has two other ports on the Humber — Grimsby and Goole — making it the country’s largest port complex by volume, accounting for roughly 13 per cent of Britain’s seaborne trade.
The UK’s container freight traffic has been sluggish, growing just 1 per cent last year to 23.8m units last year, including vehicles. But ABP is betting it will increase. It has committed to £1bn of investment across its 21 British ports over the next five years. It has already spent £50m on a car handling terminal in Southampton, mainly for export of British made vehicles, since the referendum. Some analysts have warned that ports face potential complications from Brexit, particularly if the UK fails to reach a trade deal with the EU after its departure and is then subject to new tariffs and customs regulations.
