DP World is investing another ￡300m to expand London\'s Gateway port

DP World has announced that it will start building its fourth berth in London's Gateway port next month. The port operator says it will spend £300m on the new facility, on top of the more than £2bn it has already spent on The UK's newest deep-sea port, London Gateway.

DP World said London's gateway port handled 888,000 TEU in the first half of 2021, up 23% year-on-year, and could approach 2m TEU for the full year of 2021. Meanwhile, THROUGHPUT at DP World Southampton port climbed to 995,000 TEU in the first half of this year, but due to the actual expansion of the South Bank hub

London Gateway is expected to overtake Southampton as the UK's second largest container port in the next few years. DP World added that the addition of a fourth berth, which will increase the port's total capacity by a third, coincides with the delivery of a new wave of 24,000 TEU vessels in 2023 and 2024, all of which will operate between Asia and Europe.

London Gateway, with a designed capacity of 3.5 million TEU, currently handles 23 routes -- one for The Alliance and one for The 2M Alliance between Asia and Europe. Several Europe-South America, Europe-Middle East/Indian subcontinent and Europe-South Africa routes; Four transatlantic routes; There are also various feeder and intra-European routes.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman and CEO of DP World, said: "I am delighted to announce our latest major investment in the UK, which will give London Gateway port more capacity to handle the World's largest ships than any other UK port." He also linked the investment to the development of the Thames Free Trade Port

The project is being launched in London today. He added: "As the backbone of the Thames Free Trade Port, the new fourth berth at London Gateway will allow even more customers to benefit from world-class port and logistics services, on the threshold of Europe's largest consumer market, on an unrivalled global connectivity experience."

The expansion of London Gateway will be welcomed by carriers, shippers and freight forwarders as the port and other UK ports have suffered from congestion. Just this week, The Alliance informed shippers that its AL3 transatlantic route would skip The London Gateway port next week to ease delays in The timetable.