S'HAMPTON PORT PLAN

[ParaHandy]

Re: More ships, but mainly more boxes

HongKong eh? hmmm ... is it the case that handling charges are at least three times those in the UK and that their efficiency getting them onto the quay creates huge inefficiencies elsewhere?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Mirelle]

Re: More ships, but mainly more boxes

The high handling charges in Hong Kong are mainly due to the much higher cost of terminal land there. Wages may be a little higher, but productivity is so very much higher that that cannot be an issue. They are also contrubuted to by the very high demand for container movements through HK which puts the terminals in a sellers market as their only competition comes from the midstream operators, which in the UK we have not got (and I certainly cannot see the Heath And Safety Executive allowing such operations here) but which handle 3M TEU p.a. - as much as the entire Port of Felixstowe!

The HK Government has, up to now, followed a policy of leasing container terminal sites by sealed tender bid. In general these sites are actually under the water when auctioned off and the terminal operator has to reclaim the land and get on with it from scratch. This is the true free market way of doing things and has worked extremely well.

The back lot problems in HK relate to handling ten times as many boxes per hectare as UK terminals do - and they are not insuperable.

If the UK Government followed this line rather than trying to listen to lobbies who represent commercial interests there would be no need for ANY new terminals because the existing ones would suddenly find that they have ample capacity!

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[milltech]

Re: S\'HAMPTON PORT PLAN

I'm not sure I think Ocean Village is more beatiful than Dock Gate 4. I like that industrialised urban landscape for what it is, and in preference to a site of little boxes having no architectural merit that you couldn't give away in the North East. I like all those buildings as you drive from the Red Funnel through to Ocean Village.

I think one of the great planning errors of the last fifty years has been moving employment away from the homes of the employees resulting in the traffic chaos and global warming we have today.

However I also like berthing in commercial basins in preference to marinas, in fact almost anything in preference to marinas, so you may take it I'm a throw back.

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>

 

[brianhumber]

Re: Not as simple as that

take your point about number of terminals, needs a national policy so no chance with our Westminster tarts.

re Containers, a good percentage do indeed go by train, both EWS and Frieghtliner's figure are very good and the trains are impressivly long and full.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Mirelle]

Its not al all as simple as that!

The argument that we are running out of capacity now is based on a wish to use a UK port as a "hub" port, transhipping cargo off mainline ships onto feeders here.

As John Meredith has pointed out, and the CEO of the world's largest port company should know, this generates almost no jobs or other effects in the local economy, but uses a great deal of land and water resources.

This argument is often adduced by Maersk, who want to do more hub operations in the UK, and are suspected of being the real customer for Bathside Bay. MSC do in fact use Felixstowe as their North European hub, but MSC are unusual and don't use small ships at all; they feeder on their big stuff.

The UK is in no danger of being omitted from direct calls by large mainline ships; I work for a company that runs such ships from China to the UK and, quite simply, 30% of our cargo East/West comes off in the UK, so feedering would make no sense. So far as UK exports are concerned, the problem is finding any - we have loads of space! Most of our West/East cargo is loaded in Germany. (draw your own conclusions...) The port that we have considered cutting out is actually Rotterdam, as it is miserably inefficient.

We do have a shortage of berths for very large ships in the UK; the solution is to dredge the older berths and buy modern cranes...

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?