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By Emma Pinch emma@movepublishing.co.uk
Port of Liverpool Rides High When was the Port of Liverpool’s heyday? When square-rigged sailing ships were slicing through the waves laden with tea, cotton, tobacco and rum? When White Star Line steamers were casting off for New York? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is right now.
The Port of Liverpool currently handles more cargo than ever before. Spanning a seven mile, 120 acre stretch on both sides of the Mersey, from Brunswick to Seaforth on the Liverpool side and Birkenhead to Wallasey on the Wirral, the Port of Liverpool can handle 1800 tonnes of cargo per hour, adding up to more than 30 million tonnes a year. It can have a container vessel unloaded and stuffed full again within one tide’s ebb and flow. Income-wise, its significance to Liverpool can hardly be over-stated. The Port is currently worth a whopping £1.1billion pounds a year to the city region economy and it provides the lifeblood for 900 businesses, spanning shipping, repairs, warehousing, distribution, marine law and visitor influx, and supporting an estimated 34,000 jobs. But public perception hasn’t always kept up. Mersey Maritime was set up in 2003 to advocate for marine companies on Merseyside, a sector which at the time, said chief executive Jim Teasdale, was fragmented and labouring under a debilitatingly low profile. The erroneous perception that the sun had set on Liverpool’s docks was something the Port had been stuck
with since the 90s, and it mirrored the perception of Liverpool as a whole, fed as it was by memories of dockers’ strikes, derelict buildings and long unemployment queues from years ago. Government figures currently rank Liverpool as the 7th biggest port in the UK in terms of goods imported and exported, and when combined with the Manchester Ship Canal, 4th busiest. It’s an impressive position when you bear in mind that ever since Britain joined the Common Market in 1973 Liverpool has been deemed to be on ‘the wrong side’ of the country for trade with Europe. But although figures released by the Department for Transport show cargo handling as a whole has dipped since in recent years - in line with the rest of the country - the Port has still performed better than the national average. Exports currently include the Halewood-built Freelander 2, heavy plant from Caterpillar, Kellogg’s foods bound for Ireland and scrap metal from Bootle’s S Norton to markets all around the world. It imports products for B&M Stores, Princes Foods, AB World foods and raw baked beans for Heinz. “The kind of perception people had about the Port of Liverpool was not
linked to reality,” explained Jim. “People didn’t understand the community itself, and the Port worked in isolation. “Liverpool as a city struggled in the 90s and there was a knock on effect on the maritime sector, but shipping, engineering, professional services, distribution and logistics have always been there, it’s just that people haven’t recognised it. “The best symbol (of prosperity) was thought to be a cruise liner, and if people didn’t see a cruise liner they didn’t think there was a lot happening. “Also because of the high walls, which are there for security reasons, people don’t realise the scale of the trade and goods being moved. “But since we’ve been measuring, with the exception of the economic downturn, there has been growth at the Port year on year.” Since 2003 they’ve seen maritime businesses in Liverpool double in number to 1,000, with substantial employers setting up headquarters in Liverpool. Two years ago shipping giant Maersk relocated its London headquarters to Liverpool, creating around 70 professional level jobs. Chilean container shipping line CSAV, which operates 10-12 major shipping lines around the UK, did the same.
The major draw is the maritime knowledge and skills base that exists in the city thanks to generations-old links to the sea. The origins of the Mersey docks can be traced to 1715 with the construction of the Old Dock – the world’s first enclosed commercial dock. It went on to become the most advanced dock system in the world. But by 1860s the entrance to the Albert Dock was already beginning to feel a little pinched for the new generation of deeper, wider hulled ships, and new dock development crept northwards. Around 150 years on, the lock at the Royal Seaforth Dock container terminal has been outgrown by the new generation of jumbo-sized Post Panamax container ships. In response, Peel Ports muscular plan for growth includes investment in a £100 million river deep water terminal. The facility – along with improved distribution infrastructure - will nearly double the port’s container capacity. It represents a major ‘piece of the jigsaw puzzle’ according to Jim. “The next 20 years promise to bring nothing less than transformational results” he says. “It’s exciting to be part of that process."