There are two good examples of this in the UK. The northern port of Tees & Hartlepool has seen the leading retail chain ASDA establish a major Import Deconsolidation Centre within its perimeter, opting to tranship its container cargo on the European continent and feed it to the UK via Teesport rather than use a direct service calling at one of the established deep-sea ports in the south. The second example is that of the leading retail chain B&Q which has opted to use the northern port of Immingham in a similar way.

Effectively, being “a bigger fish in smaller pond” is becoming a more attractive proposition as overall container capacity tightens and the probability of congestion builds.

It is even possible in the UK to see one or two port development schemes that target this reality. Certainly, this is part of the thinking that underpins the new outer harbour development at Great Yarmouth just down the road from the Port of Felixstowe. PSA International has taken a 60% stake in a new 250,000 teu container terminal project being developed here and scheduled to open for business in 2009. The timing is such that new container capacity will be delivered here prior to new capacity being delivered at any of the approved major port expansion schemes at Felixstowe, London Gateway or Bathside Bay. As such, the thinking is, the terminal can offer a cost competitive home to the short-sea container line operators that “in a bigger pond” invariably get shuffled down the pack when it comes to a choice between meeting their requirements or those of a major deep sea line.

There are also options now being tried in the UK such as overflow ports, used for absorbing empty containers only – perhaps only viable where existing facilities exist that are underutilised and a low cost operation can be easily established.

Doubtless this parallel world of development will be mirrored elsewhere around the world where there are high volume container flows and capacity shortfalls. It will be interesting to see what entrepreneurial spirit it prompts and the precise nature of the projects that flow from this.