Now Open: Britain's New Gateway to Global Trade

Britain’s new global shipping port welcomed its first scheduled vessel, the ‘MOL Caledon’ from South Africa. After more than a decade of planning and construction across three square miles of development, DP World 
London Gateway deep-sea port is now open, providing British exporters and importers with a more efficient way to ship globally, at less cost. 

The ‘MOL Caledon’ was welcomed by DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Vice Chairman Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah, Group CEO Mohammed Sharaf, Chairman of MOL Liner Junichiro Ikeda, and shipper representatives JFH Hillebrand MD David Mawer and Chingford Fruit MD Gavin McNally, together with other senior executives. 

London Gateway is located closer to major population centres of London, Birmingham and Manchester than other ports that are capable of handling the world’s biggest ships. The new port will reduce transport costs for exporters and importers by reducing millions of trucking miles from supply chains. 

The port also provides 21st Century infrastructure for shipping lines that are building bigger ships. DP World, a leading global port operator with more than 65 marine terminals across six continents, including new developments, built Britain’s new port for today’s and the next generation of ships. Known as ‘ultra large container ships’ (ULCS), they are up to 400 metres long and can carry over 18,000 shipping containers. 

The first scheduled ship to dock at the port, operated by MOL Liner, received exports and delivered containers carrying a variety of cargo, including fruit and automotive parts, which will be distributed across the country over the coming days. The MOL Caledon is part of the South African Europe Container Service (SAECS) which is made up of a consortium of shipping lines including MOL, Maersk, DAL and Safmarine. 

The port is now operating with its first berth open. When fully developed, London Gateway will operate six berths, with a total of 24 quay cranes and will be able to handle 3.5 million TEU a year. 

Freight trains moved cargo to the midlands and further afield today from London Gateway’s new rail terminal. Over 30% of the containers moving through the port are planned to go by rail. The state-of-the-art terminal can handle the longest trains in the UK. DB Schenker Rail UK and Freightliner are both providing rail services to the new port. 

Thousands of new jobs have been created in the construction sector during the past ten years at the site. According to a study by Oxford Economics, once fully operational, London Gateway will create 36,000 jobs and contribute £3.2bn to UK GDP annually.