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England South Coast Ports special feature
Poole's £6.5m channel project to pay dividends
POOLE Harbour is confident of attracting increased freight volumes following completion of a £6.5m ($11.6m) project to deepen the port's main approach channel. The work, completed in March, has increased the depth of the channel from 6 m to 7.5 m. As well as enabling the port to handle the next generation of cross-Channel ferries and ro-ro vessels, the deeper channel is allowing Poole to look for other types of larger vessels, says Jim Stewart, Poole Harbour Commissioners chief executive.
The port is looking at the possibility of further reclamation work and redeveloping one of its ro-ro berths into a container facility. With the deeper water it hopes to attract container feeder business. Larger cruise vessels are also on the agenda. Brittany Ferries operates year-round services from Poole to Cherbourg and Condor Ferries runs seasonal fast ferry services to the Channel Islands and St Malo. Meanwhile, Channel Seaways operates six sailings a month to Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. Cargoes handled through Poole include scrap and clay exports and timber imports.
However, Arcelor has recently confirmed that it will cease using the port for steel imports from October this year. The steel that has been handled through Poole will be railed directly to the new BMW warehouse in Swindon, due to open in October. This decision will hit Poole's transport department, which has shown a profit for the past two years due to the Arcelor business. At a recent meeting of the harbour commissioners it was said to be "imperative" that new business was found to replace it.
Portsmouth relishes ro-ro rebound
RO-RO freight through Portsmouth has seen a re-surgence in recent months, and this has balanced a difficult passenger market, says port manager Martin Putman.
"Freight has stopped its decline and is growing," he says. "That is very good news and we expect it to continue." Portsmouth has added a new service to its portfolio with the arrival of Spanish operator Acciona Trasmediterranea's link to Bilbao last month. There were some embarrassing teething troubles. The first crossing had to be cancelled after the 172 m Fortuny, which has capacity for 1,000 passengers and 330 vehicles, was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency with safety problems.
But Mr Putman says: "Acciona Trasmediterranea is a well established, leading ferry company and we are confident that this will be a very good service. "This is a strong route, as P&O has proved. The Fortunyhas 1,800 lane metres and we believe it will do very well with freight, particularly with the Saturday sailing. "Outside the summer season the northbound sailing will depart at 2200 hrs on Saturday to avoid French road restrictions, so freight will come in to Portsmouth on the Monday, which will be a very attractive option."The Trasmediterranea service started soon after LD Lines arrived in Portsmouth to take over the Le Havre route previously operated by P&O.
"LD Lines is reaching capacity on the freight side and the passenger side has been well received as well," says Mr Putman. "Obviously this is not the same product as Brittany Ferries are offering but it is not the same price either. The LD service means we can offer a variety of products for people using Portsmouth, from the top end with Commodore class on Brittany Ferries to the budget end with LD, where you have reclining seats. "It is good to have that choice. A lot of people coming through here have properties in France and all they want to do is get across." Brittany Ferries offers services from Portsmouth to Caen and St Malo. Its service to Cherbourg is now high-speed only, operated by the Normandie Express.
P&O Ferries continues its three-day rotation to Bilbao. Portsmouth, which is Britain's largest municipally owned port, handled a total of 790,237 vehicles, 283,735 freight units and 2.71m passengers on its Continental and Channel Islands services last year. All these figures were down on 2004 but this year freight volumes are so far up year-on-year. Condor Ferries provides daily passenger and freight ro-ro services to the Channel Islands, while Huelin-Renouf operates a lo-lo service three times a week. Portsmouth is preparing for the return of rail freight services by the end of this year and hoping to gain funding through the European Union's Impacte scheme. "We have to put in a new siding for the service and we are waiting for funding to be agreed," says Mr Putman. "It is many, many years since there was any rail freight into Portsmouth. The terminal has been empty for years and is one of our reserved sites."
The plan is to run a rail service to carry unitised cargo, including reefer boxes for bananas and other fresh produce handled by MMD at Flathouse and Albert Johnson quays. "We may run a rail service which splits at Daventry and goes on to two destinations," says Mr Putman. MMD handles about 530,000 tonnes of fresh produce imports annually through its Portsmouth facility. This includes 70% of all the bananas eaten in Britain. Dole, Fyffes, Geest and Jamaican Producers all import through the port. The MMD facility handles fresh produce from central and South America, Morocco, South Africa, New Zealand and the Mediterranean, including citrus and exotic fruit.
POOLE Harbour is confident of attracting increased freight volumes following completion of a £6.5m ($11.6m) project to deepen the port's main approach channel. The work, completed in March, has increased the depth of the channel from 6 m to 7.5 m. As well as enabling the port to handle the next generation of cross-Channel ferries and ro-ro vessels, the deeper channel is allowing Poole to look for other types of larger vessels, says Jim Stewart, Poole Harbour Commissioners chief executive.
The port is looking at the possibility of further reclamation work and redeveloping one of its ro-ro berths into a container facility. With the deeper water it hopes to attract container feeder business. Larger cruise vessels are also on the agenda. Brittany Ferries operates year-round services from Poole to Cherbourg and Condor Ferries runs seasonal fast ferry services to the Channel Islands and St Malo. Meanwhile, Channel Seaways operates six sailings a month to Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. Cargoes handled through Poole include scrap and clay exports and timber imports.
However, Arcelor has recently confirmed that it will cease using the port for steel imports from October this year. The steel that has been handled through Poole will be railed directly to the new BMW warehouse in Swindon, due to open in October. This decision will hit Poole's transport department, which has shown a profit for the past two years due to the Arcelor business. At a recent meeting of the harbour commissioners it was said to be "imperative" that new business was found to replace it.
Portsmouth relishes ro-ro rebound
RO-RO freight through Portsmouth has seen a re-surgence in recent months, and this has balanced a difficult passenger market, says port manager Martin Putman.
"Freight has stopped its decline and is growing," he says. "That is very good news and we expect it to continue." Portsmouth has added a new service to its portfolio with the arrival of Spanish operator Acciona Trasmediterranea's link to Bilbao last month. There were some embarrassing teething troubles. The first crossing had to be cancelled after the 172 m Fortuny, which has capacity for 1,000 passengers and 330 vehicles, was detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency with safety problems.
But Mr Putman says: "Acciona Trasmediterranea is a well established, leading ferry company and we are confident that this will be a very good service. "This is a strong route, as P&O has proved. The Fortunyhas 1,800 lane metres and we believe it will do very well with freight, particularly with the Saturday sailing. "Outside the summer season the northbound sailing will depart at 2200 hrs on Saturday to avoid French road restrictions, so freight will come in to Portsmouth on the Monday, which will be a very attractive option."The Trasmediterranea service started soon after LD Lines arrived in Portsmouth to take over the Le Havre route previously operated by P&O.
"LD Lines is reaching capacity on the freight side and the passenger side has been well received as well," says Mr Putman. "Obviously this is not the same product as Brittany Ferries are offering but it is not the same price either. The LD service means we can offer a variety of products for people using Portsmouth, from the top end with Commodore class on Brittany Ferries to the budget end with LD, where you have reclining seats. "It is good to have that choice. A lot of people coming through here have properties in France and all they want to do is get across." Brittany Ferries offers services from Portsmouth to Caen and St Malo. Its service to Cherbourg is now high-speed only, operated by the Normandie Express.
P&O Ferries continues its three-day rotation to Bilbao. Portsmouth, which is Britain's largest municipally owned port, handled a total of 790,237 vehicles, 283,735 freight units and 2.71m passengers on its Continental and Channel Islands services last year. All these figures were down on 2004 but this year freight volumes are so far up year-on-year. Condor Ferries provides daily passenger and freight ro-ro services to the Channel Islands, while Huelin-Renouf operates a lo-lo service three times a week. Portsmouth is preparing for the return of rail freight services by the end of this year and hoping to gain funding through the European Union's Impacte scheme. "We have to put in a new siding for the service and we are waiting for funding to be agreed," says Mr Putman. "It is many, many years since there was any rail freight into Portsmouth. The terminal has been empty for years and is one of our reserved sites."
The plan is to run a rail service to carry unitised cargo, including reefer boxes for bananas and other fresh produce handled by MMD at Flathouse and Albert Johnson quays. "We may run a rail service which splits at Daventry and goes on to two destinations," says Mr Putman. MMD handles about 530,000 tonnes of fresh produce imports annually through its Portsmouth facility. This includes 70% of all the bananas eaten in Britain. Dole, Fyffes, Geest and Jamaican Producers all import through the port. The MMD facility handles fresh produce from central and South America, Morocco, South Africa, New Zealand and the Mediterranean, including citrus and exotic fruit.
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