Forth gains Tilbury Container Services
Charles Hammond: We see growth possibilities not just in containers ... but across the port itself.
Forth Ports has taken control of the deepsea container facilities of Tilbury Container Services in a three-way deal worth £95m.
The agreement will see Forth Ports’ fellow shareholders, DP World and Associated British Ports, sever their links with TCS, and will enable Forth Ports to combine deepsea and shortsea container facilities at the Port of Tilbury into one integrated operation, rebranded London Container Terminal.
The change also puts an end to any perceived clash of interests for DP World, which is due to open the new London Gateway container terminal downriver from Tilbury towards the end of next year (2013).
TCS, the closest deepsea container terminal to London, handles about 320,000 containers a year, with the focus on north-south trades and a high volume of reefer cargoes. Volumes increased by about 2.5% last year (2011). Tilbury’s Short Sea Container Terminal (SSCT), adjacent to TCS, saw a 7.5% increase in throughput last year, to 145,000 boxes.
Forth Ports acquired its one-third share in TCS in 1998; under the deal, it will pay DPW and ABP close to £48m each for their shares.
“We are doing this because we see growth possibilities not just in containers within the Port of Tilbury but across the port itself,” said Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond.
The rebranded London Container Terminal will become the third largest single container operation in the UK and one of the few locations that offers, in the same terminal, both shortsea and deepsea container services as well as coastal feeder operations, he added.
Forth Ports also believes it has a trump card with its expansion into 30 hectares of logistics land north of the existing Tilbury port estate.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
