“Ports are long term businesses,” he says, but he notes that over and above the immediate economic woes, market share can still be pulled or pushed around.
So, the real battle ground, says Mr Hammond, is going to be around gaining those important supply chain links.
Forth Ports has just bought out the remaining two thirds of Tilbury Container Services (TCS) for £95m and is putting together an offering which brings together both deepsea and short sea operations, and capacity for nearly half a million containers. It is leaving TCS’ neighbour, the massive London Gateway, to take on the biggest of the Asia trades while TCS will concentrate on the slightly smaller box ship and reefer market, with a good spread of forestry and other bulk products.
Forth Ports (which was brought out last year by Arcus European Infrastructure Fund) aims to gain from the modal shift that, Mr Hammond says, “is coming without a doubt”. It’s being pulled by those, like the Spanish, which have traditionally faced long legs of overland trucking – and it’s being pushed more by economic concerns than the ecological ones.
So TCS, to be renamed London Container Terminal, will be, he hopes, the centre of a distribution hub which will help a nascent UK South West distribution corridor. “The port’s direct influence over cost is small in comparison to other parts of the supply chain – but we can help shave off a certain amount by bringing industry and warehousing closer”.
In a mature market like the UK, this has as much of a strategic as geographic ring: Forth helped smooth communications between the London Olympics logistics operators, the barge operators and the shortsea and shipping lines. “This is the way forward, ports can be excellent facilitators because we can see right across the spectrum,” he concludes.
This spectrum includes a green tinge, as Forth, like a number of the UK’s medium-to-large ports, is intent on developing a green industry niche. In a joint venture with SSE, the company also has planning proposals for biomass plants at its ports in Dundee, Grangemouth and Rosyth as well looking at offshore renewables support in both Dundee and Leith.