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City Boys: Where were you when British shipping needed you? – DP World director

[ July 28, 2023   //   ]

DP World independent non-executive director Robert Woods has lambasted the UK’s financiers for their lack of support for the UK shipping industry.
At the christening ceremony in Dover for P&O Ferries’ latest vessel, the P&O Pioneer, he paid tribute to the Dubai-based company’s support for the cross—Channel and Irish Sea ro ro operator during the calamitous Covid lockdown period. “DP World made a very substantial shareholder loan, otherwise it would have been in difficulties,” he told assembled guests on the quayside.
He went on: “It shows the importance of having a shareholder with a long-term view. And DP World’s £2.5 billion investment in the UK is in sharp contrast to the City of London financiers who shuddered with horror when London Gateway was first proposed 17-18 years ago.”
The Dubai company’s faith had been vindicated, he said. London Gateway is about to open a fourth deepwater berth and, together with Southampton Container Terminal, now controls nearly half the UK’s container port capacity.
At the same event, P&O Ferries’ chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite made little reference to the controversy that has gripped his company when, on 17 March 2022, it summarily dismissed 800 of its seafarers in favour of lower-cost recruits from abroad. He said however that he was determined that he was determined to “put the business back on a competitive footing on the long term.”
P&O Ferries, he said, “must be modern, competitive, dynamic and efficient”.
Turning to the matter in hand, the christening of P&O Pioneer by his wife, Georgiana Robert Woods described the new ship as the most modern on the Dover-Calais route and indeed in the world. As well as offering hybrid fuel operation, its unique double-ended design would save considerable time in port as well as fuel. While a simple enough concept in theory, creating a double-ended ship had proved to be huge challenge to naval architects and the whole project had taken five years to realise.
The P&O Pioneer’s battery and diesel system would cut fuel use and emissions by 40%. Inside, if offered not only a high level of customer comfort but was also one of the quietest ships thanks to its electrically-powered systems.

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