Private concerns

But being the World Bank’s “only example of a country with lengthy experience in comprehensive port privatisation” is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Privatised ports still need the support of national government, both politically and financially. The former shouldn’t be so hard to secure, however in the UK there’s a growing voice that claims otherwise. The latter has long since gone out of the door and rather than any reversal, it is clear that government is looking to the ports to undertake and fund related development aspects. These could take the form of inter-related road development or tunnel clearance for hi-cube containers by rail, as examples.

PD Ports isn’t backwards in coming forward on this issue. Its chief executive David Robinson laments that while UK ports compete for the same business as its continental rivals, it cannot compete on marketing spend which puts it at a disadvantage. UK ports respective budgets tend to have more to contend with.

“When we go to the UK government and development agencies and ask for money we instantly get the ‘state aid’ answer,” says Mr Robinson. “We need to be leaner, meaner, and sharper.”

The stark warning from PD Ports is that without a long term vision, British ports will lose out to those that have the ability to adapt more quickly. Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp are all obvious candidates.

And PD Ports is not alone in its gripe against national officialdom. British financiers are also questioning the support of the UK Government. Prudential M&G’s James Cooper goes so far as to say that he “can’t think of anything the UK government has done to support the ports industry in the past three years”. In particular, he singles out the Government’s increase of backdated port rates as extremely damaging.

The overall knock-on effect for UK ports is that it becoming increasingly difficult for financiers to find the projects that give them the confidence to invest for the next 25 years. In these lean financial times, should we be adding to the burdens of British ports?

While severing the ties from public ownership can be an invigorating experience, lessons can and are being learnt from the UK experience. In short, two Ps – public-private – can be better than one. All the more so when the competition “over there” is deriving significant competitive advantage from state aid that is deemed by the European Commission to be justifiable.

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