Keynote speaker at the Marine Money event, packed with bankers and investors, was ex-US Navy secretary John Lehman,whose private fund recently acquired the Atlantic Marine shipyard, based in Jacksonville, Florida. Investors will renovate the facility and expand its capacity.

In describing the US port sector, where independent operators are still a factor against the backdrop of consolidation, Mr Fuehrer said that owners of many terminals “had their businesses under review, they are in the process of considering strategic alternatives”.

He told the audience that transactions such as the £2.8bn mid- 2006 acquisition of Associated British Ports by an investment consortium, will be replicated in the US. Quite simply, “the ownership profile (of US ports) will change”.

The reasons for the intense interest in the ports business, according to Mr Fuehrer, were quite simple: “Ports control a chokepoint on the cargo market.”

He also pointed out that, in the US market, population growth and concentration near the coastline have led to a robust growth of container flows that has outstripped the gross domestic product growth rate, adding to the importance of logistics and scheduling.

Port businesses are typically valued at 14 -16 times their cash flows (more than double that for conventional listed shipping companies), because “they are quasi-real estate businesses” (characterised by steady payouts) and are “very hard to replicate. Ports in the US are becoming fully utilised.”