Bucking the trend
Matt Jukes: at the helm of ABP's Hull and Goole since February this year
In the UK's north-west, Hull and Goole's new boss refuses to be dragged down by the financial blip. Stuart Pearcey finds out why
On the day the Halifax and Lloyd's TSB dashed towards their marriage of financial convenience, one of the UK's newest port executives dismissed the downturn caused by the credit crunch as a relative blip in the long-term life of a port.
Matt Jukes, at the helm of Hull and Goole as Associated British Port's (ABP) port director since February this year, takes a bullish stance about the port industry. "The UK needs its ports and their customers; always has done. They are vital to the country's economy," he says speaking to Port Strategy.And he believes the growth in the size of container vessels can only be good news on that front. "Development of ships like the Emma Maersk means there will be a natural growth in feeder services. Unit load and short-sea business will inevitably grow, and do so substantially," he says.
His view is supported by the significant commercial interest being shown in ABP's development ambitions for Hull, currently used for over 12.5m tonnes of freight and by a million passengers annually, and where the largest client is P&O, with whom it does about 50% of its business.
But enhancements worth more than £200m are planned to a port seen as the 'Midland gateway' serving markets as far afield as Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle. Investments on such a scale will deliver three new or enhanced berths and the shoreside infrastructure to support them, and will allow part-laden capesize and panamax vessels to berth at a new terminal with a 350-metre quay and 12 metres of draught.
Proposed development runs right along Hull's Humber frontage, stretching more than two miles from the container terminal alongside the Alexandra Dock in the west, where the Hull Riverside Container Terminal expansion's planned, to where the new Hull Riverside Bulk Terminal will be in the east.
Hull's container volumes grew by 15% last year, and ABP is hungry for more with development starting as early as next year.
"Our container operations have been very successful. With the terminal operator PD Port Services there has been an investment of over £4.5m on cranes and terminal improvements, and when the Hull Riverside Container Terminal is developed at the Alexandra Dock we will free up space at the existing terminal in Queen Elizabeth Dock. There is a lot of commercial interest, even in the current climate. Long-term benefits are becoming clear."
The crane spend is small in the context of the investment of £75m proposed for a new 400m berth, a trio of ship-to-shore cranes and a number of rubber-tyred gantry cranes. When finished, the new berths will be able to accommodate vessels of up to 2,000 teu.
Meanwhile, two years of marine and market analysis have led up to ABP being ready to apply for a Harbour Revision Order for the Hull Riverside Bulk Terminal, the 350-metre berth representing the cornerstone of its bulk terminal aspirations.
"We hope to be in a position to apply for the order within the first half of next year, or, with luck, even the first quarter," says Mr Jukes. "With a following wind we might be able to get approval within a two-year window, with two years of construction leading to operation as early as 2012.
"When we get to that stage it will secure our dry bulk business for many years into the future," he adds.
Operation of the £140m terminal - £110m for the berth; up to £30m for landside developments - will make it one of the most efficient in Europe, claims Mr Jukes.
All of which is fine, but how will the extra volumes of goods be moved into the hinterland of the port, squeezed between the Humber on one side and a busy dual carriageway carrying traffic into the city on the other?
Rail's an important part of the answer, and has been the subject of investment worth £14.5m - entirely appropriate for a port created almost a century ago by the Hull and Barnsley Railway and the North Eastern Railway.
"Strong support from the City Council and Yorkshire Forward has allowed us to increase our rail traffic capacity from eight to 10 trains a day to 20; it's a step change that sets the scene for development in containers, paper and bulk cargoes, with Hull being able to offer a multi-modal solution," says Mr Jukes.
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