Major Expansion To UK’s Biggest Port Announced

ABP has announced a major expansion plan for two of its key operations in the Port of Immingham. Last year, ABP announced a £50 million investment for its container terminal offer across the Ports of Hull and Immingham, the first £14m phase saw the expansion of the Hull Container Terminal and the arrival of two purpose-built gantry cranes to support its operations.

Following continued growth in container volumes across the two ports in 2017, a second phase of the £50 million investment has now begun and will see ABP spend £36 million on the container terminal in Immingham.

In addition to the container investment, ABP’s shipping customers are projecting significant growth in volumes they handle in the coming years. To meet the challenges of these projections, ABP has committed to investing a further £2.8 million in expanding the land and services available to support customer operations within the port. In 2013, the Port of Immingham handled 68,000 container units, but by 2017 that number has grown to 183,000 units. The growth is, in part, due to the rise in the number of Regional Distribution Centres across the M1/M62 corridor, which look to the Humber Ports as their gateway to trade.
A shift in trade volumes has also been noticed, with cargoes originally destined for ports such as Dover, moving increasingly north as trade partners look at alternatives to mitigate any difficulties the more traditional routes may experience in future.