{"id":642,"date":"2016-07-03T12:53:51","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T11:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=642"},"modified":"2016-07-03T12:53:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T11:53:51","slug":"liverpool-norths-safe-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/news\/liverpool-norths-safe-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool is the North\u2019s safe haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s financial landscape might be experiencing some uncertainty, Liverpool\u2019s Mark Whitworth has big plans for the city\u2019s port regardless. And he\u2019s right to think so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an interview with the Telegraph<\/a>, the chief executive of Peel Ports Group shared his optimism for the times ahead of us and explained why his \u00a3300m project to build a new container terminal at Peel\u2019s Port of Liverpool headquarters is one of the best things that could\u2019ve ever happened to the city.<\/p>\n

Liverpool2, or L2 in short, will be able to berth the world\u2019s largest container ship and will double the amount of containers the port can handle. The extension to the port is an integral piece of George Osborne\u2019s vision of a Northern Powerhouse.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Whitworth explains that the reasoning behind the decision to go ahead with the plans for the new port is a lot simpler than the recent referendum results. Britain is and will remain a substantial consumer market. \u201cPorts have a natural and reconfigurable balance of business between imports and exports\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we take a step back and look at the market drivers which are behind the rationale, it would be fair to say that with Liverpool2 we never committed to the investment on the basis of market growth,\u201d says Whitworth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale for this is much simpler. The reality is that 90pc of the containers that come into the UK come in via southern ports. In excess of 60pc of them end up closer to Liverpool than any other port.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s less expensive to bring a container from China to the UK than it is to take it from a southern port to the North.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 65pc of the UK population resides closer to Liverpool than any other port. It is too easy to only look south. Logic tells you that we have a very strong market on our doorstep which today we are not exploiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historic and technical elements both play their part in need to deliver L2, Mancunian born Whitworth says. Being located on the River Mersey means the Liverpool dock is entered via lock gates designed and built in a different era.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the new terminal existed, Liverpool\u2019s capacity to accommodate container vessels used to max out at 5% of the world\u2019s container fleet. Fitting more containers through deeper shipping lanes was made possible after \u00a335m Regional Growth Funding was awarded by the Government.<\/p>\n

Historically, Liverpool could only accommodate vessels of up to 4,500 TEU, however, up to 18,000 TEU ships are favoured by container lines and their customers seeking economies of scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cL2 addresses that problem front-on,\u201d Whitworth says. \u201cWe could accommodate any of the vessels in the world\u2019s fleet. If we were handling two at any one time, it would move down to around 95pc of the world\u2019s fleet. It really is a game-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But will the Brexit vote damage demand, even domestically? \u201cWe have a very strong natural hinterland. We extend our capability by a variety of means. We have road, rail and water connectivity. We own the Manchester Ship Canal, which enables us to trans-ship containers coming in to Liverpool on to our smaller vessels and move them to the heartland of the North West of England.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have just enjoyed our busiest year ever with container volumes moving along that route, so I think there is a strong case to underpin my statements. Can we anticipate clearly the consequence of Out? There\u2019s also a strong claim for ‘steady state\u2019, in terms of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are going to be penalised by trading in Europe, one would argue that trading with the US may be more beneficial and there is probably no better port within the UK to serve the US transatlantic markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

L2 is touted by Whitworth as more than what he calls a \u201csingle-dimensional container facility\u201d. He underlines advantages in connecting multiple modes of transport while reducing road miles. \u201cOur model is very different,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce containers have arrived into Liverpool, we will continue to extract value from them. If containers are going to be trans-shipped to another port, perhaps in Ireland or in Scotland, in many cases we can use our own shipping business, BG Freight Line [based in Rotterdam and part of Peel Ports Group], to trans-ship those. It\u2019s a pretty substantial feeder business.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key part to this vision is the Port Salford Tri-Modal Distribution Park, situated just west of Manchester. The park opened less than two months ago and is triggering additional investment from third parties as well as future custom for L2.<\/p>\n

The Peel Ports Group identifies the uniqueness of the \u00a3138m facility through its accessibility by three motorways, the Manchester Ship canal and rail.<\/p>\n

Whitworth has had major success with the Peel Ports Group ever since joining it in 2010. In the just over five years since he\u2019s joined, the company\u2019s annual profits have risen from \u00a3119m to \u00a3210m.<\/p>\n

The company is part of the Peel Group, formerly Peel Holdings, of which 75% are owned by property tycoon John Whittaker. Other trophies in Whittaker\u2019s repertoire include Liverpool\u2019s John Lennon International Airport and a 25% share hold of intu, which owns Manchester\u2019s Trafford Centre.<\/p>\n

Whittaker is overall known as a stimulant for growth. But parts of the question of why to expand Liverpool\u2019s port so drastically still remain.<\/p>\n

Whitworth is insistent that his investment makes sense. \u201cThe truth is logistics flows haven\u2019t changed yet to reflect just how we serve consumption in the UK. I\u2019d like to think that as we move forward, port-centric distribution will become increasingly important and a bigger factor for our business. For all ports, quite frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past three years we have spent \u00a3650m in Liverpool alone. Look at the maths. Today it is less expensive to bring a container from China to the UK than it is to migrate it from one of the southern ports to the North. \u201cIt is the land-based leg that\u2019s costing a lot of money and ultimately that problem is not going to change easily. It (the North) is where the population resides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe re-presented our (rolling) five year plan quite recently to our shareholders and we had a vision of delivering around of \u00a3650m of investment \u2013 a similar figure to that which we\u2019ve already spent \u2013 in the next five years. Much of that, if it\u2019s not in direct support of L2, will be in supporting the businesses that are by-products of its existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start to look at the story around critical mass, the market is there, the population is there, the consumers are there. The distribution centres to feed the consumers are there. I think the story starts to become quite compelling. That\u2019s why we have confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s financial landscape might be experiencing some uncertainty, Liverpool\u2019s Mark Whitworth has big plans for the city\u2019s port regardless. And he\u2019s right to think so. In an interview with the Telegraph, the chief executive of Peel Ports Group shared his optimism for the times ahead of us and explained why his \u00a3300m project to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":4750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,111,59],"tags":[109,110,89,97],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}