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London Gateway expansion is on, after all

[ October 14, 2024   //   ]

DP World has confirmed that it will build a fifth and sixth berth at London Gateway port as part of a £1bn expansion over the next five years. The investment will also include a second rail terminal.

It follows a turbulent weekend, during which Dubai-owned DP World was reported to be threatening to shelve the investment in response to the Transport Secretary’s criticism of labour practices at the company P&O Ferries subsidiary. Transport minister Louise Haigh had described P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” when it sacked 800 workers as part of a restructure of its Dover/Calais operation two years ago.

A threat by DP World to pull out of its UK container port business could have been a major  embarrassment to the government ahead of the International Investment Summit due to start on 14 October.

However, DP World says that it will after all increase capacity of London Gateway’s port by building two new shipping berths, taking the total to six berths able to receive the world’s largest container ships. By the end of the decade, 2.5km of quayside will be able to simultaneously receive six vessels, each more than 400 metres long, operating Europe’s tallest quay cranes.

DP World said the expansion will create a further 400 permanent new jobs, in addition to the 1,200 currently employed at the site, which opened in 2013 on the site of a former oil refinery. The port has a current capacity of about 2m teu a year, but the new berths will significantly increase this.

The expansion will take the total invested by DP World at London Gateway to more than £3bn, creating one of the UK’s largest container ports. The recently opened number four berth is the first to be powered entirely by electricity, and which will soon handle its first ship. DP World also owns and operates the container terminal at the port of Southampton.

DP World has also established what it describes as Europe’s largest logistics park, employing 1,500 workers with storage, warehousing and distribution services linked to rail and motorway.

DP World group chairman and chief executive, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: “DP World London Gateway will help make Britain’s trade flow in the future by connecting domestic exporters with global markets and delivering vital supply chain resilience for the whole economy. I am proud of this major investment which underlines DP World’s long-term commitment to the UK.”

Ernst Schulze, chief executive for ports and terminals at DP World UK, added: “As this commitment demonstrates, London Gateway’s location and transport infrastructure are ideally placed for expansion. With extra capacity comes the reliability and supply chain resilience so important to our customers and consumers, especially in uncertain times such as the pandemic and disruption due to geopolitical events.”

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