Port of Ipswich helps ease container congestion
China Shipping Group adds new business to Ipswich as container trade with Far East in UK rises by 27 percent...
 

The Port of Ipswich – owned and operated by Associated British Ports (ABP) – has recently been handling container exports on behalf of the China Shipping Group (China Shipping). Feeder services have been running from the port’s West Bank Terminal to Zeebrugge, Antwerp and Rotterdam, carrying 250 TEUs per voyage, with nine crossings having been made to date.

The new business comes on the back of increased congestion in many of Britain’s container-handling ports. Bryan Boreham, Manager of China Shipping’s Equipment Control Department, explains: “The volume of the UK’s container trade with the Far East has risen by 27 per cent this year alone. This, combined with the increased size of modern deep-sea container vessels, means that boxes are entering the country faster than they can be returned to their point of origin.

“We considered a number of options to help us face this challenge, but it was the Port of Ipswich that provided us with the ideal solution of a combined storage and handling operation. This offers an important “safety valve”, and enables us to return containers to circulation as quickly as possible.”

Alastair MacFarlane, Port Manager for ABP’s East Anglian ports, said:

“We are pleased to welcome China Shipping to Ipswich, and look forward to developing our relationship with them over the coming months. Just one of the strengths of the port – ABP’s largest of its 11 short-sea ports – is our flexibility and ability to process many different cargoes and trades. We are able to load a container ship fully in less than a day, minimising turnaround times, and providing the most efficient service possible to our customers.”

Last year, the Port of Ipswich handled over 3.5 million tonnes of cargo, including dry bulks, forest products, liquid bulks and general cargo, as well as containers.