LIVERPOOL POISED FOR CARGO GRAB

摘要

A subtle shift in UK logistics is underway. Propelled by the desire to reduce road transport costs and de-clog land-based transport networks, there is a move to get more seaborne cargoes closer to their end destinations at point of delivery. The most vociferous proponent of that shift is, perhaps, the port of Liverpool. It has a well-publicised masterplan to reclaim container cargoes back from the southern ports of Felixstowe, Southampton and Tilbury, which over the years have been diverted away due to severe space restrictions at the old Liverpool locks. The port has gambled its own money on a new £300m ($454m) deepwater container terminal, Liverpool, which it sees as a "catalyst for change" in the north west. "It makes no sense for containers to come into southern ports, to be trucked all the way to the middle of the country, only to come back predominantly empty. It is just a hell of a waste," Peel Ports chief operating officer Gary Hodgson says.