The Port of London welcomed larger ships than ever last year as the tonnage of cargo handled at Thames terminals climbed to 45.4 million tonnes (up 2% on 2014). PLA chief executive, Robin Mortimer said: “Last year a number of operators introduced new, bigger ships and records were broken. The record breakers included container ship, UASC Barzan and cruise ship Viking Star. The 400 metre long Barzan set a new benchmark as the biggest-ever ship on the Thames when she called at London Gateway Port in September. Viking Star became the largest-ever cruise ship in central London when she called at our Greenwich cruise ship moorings on her inaugural trip in May.

“Since August, the Port of Tilbury has welcomed over 20 calls from

Grimaldi’s new-generation, larger capacity con-ro ships, operating on routes between Europe and West Africa. Longer and wider than their predecessors, they are handled at Tilbury’s new landing stage berth, rather than in the docks. And the Thames’ busiest service operator, CLdN has much larger, “game changer”, ships being built as well.

“It’s developments like these, combined with the planned £1 billion of investment by Thames terminals and operators over the next five years, that give us confidence in the future. The Thames Vision project, looking at how the Thames will develop over the next two decades has set a goal of port trade growing to over 60 million tonnes.”

The first two quay cranes for Berth3 at DP World’s London GatewayPort are shown leaving China. They are expected to arrive at the UK’s newest container terminal in approximately two months.

Port of Tilbury owners, Forth
Ports has entered into an agreement to purchase 152 acres of land, including a further deep water jetty, to the east of the
Essex port. The acquisition price
is not disclosed, however it is expected that at least £100m will be invested in infrastructure and facilities on the land. The land purchased is part of the former Tilbury Power Station owned by RWE which closed in 2013 and is currently being decommissioned.

The port has taken ownership of part of the 152 acre site, with the remainder to be handed over following the completion of the demolition process. The
acquisition brings the total port acreage to 1,100 acres. Forth
Ports intends to use the land to extend their operations with the creation of a new port to meet the needs of their customers and market demands.