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By Emma Pinch emma@movepublishing.co.uk
Peel Ports’ ambitious plans for the Port of Liverpool will boost it into a 21st century facility. Move Commerical meets one of the people at the helm.
On course for success
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chains for the chemicals sector. It soon struck him that in his previous job he had never considered using Liverpool as a port before – taking it for granted that the South East was the only viable option. His first task was to find out why. He soon recognised he had inherited “a very successful but traditional port business” which to remain competitive needed to upgrade for the needs of the 21st century. Traditional bulk cargoes like coal were in a natural decline while container vessels were now being
already on the drawing board when Stephen arrived. The plan, single project and still at the theoretical stage, was to create an in river deep-water container terminal for container vessels with dimensions larger than the Panama Canal – or Post Panamax models. “When somebody asks you in 2010, in the depths of recession,” recalls Stephen, “‘do you fancy having this operational by 2014, it’s quite a decent challenge. It’s the sort of opportunity you don’t get very often. “There was the question then, should we still be continuing with this. My view and the view of the
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It makes Stephen Carr chuckle when he hears some of the wilder speculation regarding Peel’s commitment to Liverpool versus its ties to Manchester. Bolton-born Stephen was recruited 18 months ago as Peel Ports’ business development director with a brief to see the Port of Liverpool transformed into a 21st century facility – with the jewel in its crown a new in-river terminal capable of accommodating some of the world’s largest container ships. “We wouldn’t be doing that if Liverpool wasn’t where our heart was,” he says with some feeling. It’s a £330 million investment. “But I’m not ashamed – as a neutral Lancastrian - to say we are integrating Liverpool and Manchester. The Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, working together as one, are much more powerful than two waterways competing.” “The Victorians didn’t get too many things wrong. All we are doing is going back to how it all started. “We’re not pretending we’ll ever be the port that serves London but what we want to be is the key port of entry for the north of Britain and Ireland.” Bolton-born Stephen Carr’s ambitious Mersey voyage began when he joined Peel Ports 18 months ago, from global third party logistics firm TDG where he worked as sales director, optimising Europe-wide supply
We want to be the key port of entry for the North of Britain and Ireland.
built two to three times bigger than the lock gates at Gladstone Dock could accommodate, which had been constructed to the same depth and width of the Panama Canal. Those massive container vessels – most bringing goods from the Far East – call in at ports in the South East, like Southampton, which has berths deep and wide enough to accommodate them, then stop off at ports like Rotterdam. The first strand of the solution was
business now, is this is an investment that will last 100 years. Our view is very much that it’s a facility we’ve got to have as a port to be able to compete and operate in a 21st century supply chain.” But with terminals to take these super-vessels, swinging up to Liverpool still represents a longer journey by sea. He proved that if ships made a longer journey to turn north and call in at Liverpool, operators could
proveably reap not only financial benefits, but cut carbon emissions and congestion time too. More than half the cargo unloaded in the South, he demonstrated in the business model, ends up being trucked to factories and shops hundreds of miles north. The cost case for calling in at Liverpool is clearly strong. The challenge Stephen and his team face is getting all sectors – shipping lines, importers, exporters and land based logistics companies – to view sea and land container movement as a single journey. “The shipping industry and land based logistics industry have a history of working apart,” explains Stephen. “So the biggest challenge is getting the shipping line to have enough confidence it can be compensated for the diversion cost by taking a share of the savings achieved by the land based logistics players. “The shipping line could quite legitimately charge £100 more per container and the importer would be happy to pay it because it was cheaper than the alternative route. “We have enough feedback to suggest that importers see it, and we’re hearing shipping lines from India and the Far East that would call in if we could accommodate their vessels.” The vision grew to encompass a two-berth deep-water river terminal in the Mersey, improved warehousing and road infrastructure