UK’s Humber will host Coastlink 2026

The two-day conference in May will feature industry-leading speakers, thought provoking discussions all in the heart of ABP’s cluster of four ports in the Humber.

“As the prime port operator in the Humber, Coastlink is a great showcase for our ports and our connections to the short sea shipping routes across the North Sea,” said Andrew Dawes, regional director, ABP Humber.

“Our ports deliver resilience and sustainability through those routes as we proudly serve our customers through our ambitious missions of ’Keeping Britain Trading’ and ’Enabling the Energy Transition’.”

Sally Wattam, events director, Mercator Media Ltd which produces Coastlink, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Associated British Ports (ABP) to host Coastlink in 2026 as the event heads to the North of the UK. With four ABP ports located on the Humber it is the UK’s busiest trading estuary.”

“Strategically important for European short sea traffic, it is therefore an ideal location to host Coastlink next year. We look forward to working with ABP to build on the success of the 2025 conference, which was hosted by Bilbao Port.”

Energy transition 

ABP ports and the Humber are helping lead the efforts to UK’s transition to green energy. Over GB£50 million has been invested into its Humber container terminals at Hull and Immingham, the operator’s largest port by volume of tonnage. 

The operator aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of short sea shipping by supporting initiatives such as green shipping corridors with the Port of Rotterdam and establishing new routes – e.g. CO2 shipping to Germany with Wilhelmshaven. 

Coastlink is a pan-European network dedicated to the promotion of short sea and feeder shipping.

Participants include ports and port operators, short sea shipping lines and shippers, intermodal operators, terminal operators, cargo handlers, stevedores and logistics specialists.