Southampton gets a new container berth

Shipping Freight Southampton

The UK’s newest container berth, had its first call yesterday.

Hyundai Tenacity, the 13,082 teu (20 foot equivilant container) vessel was the first to visit the new 500 metre long, £100 million quay.

New Berth Ship Size

The new berth (SCT5) can handle the largest and deepest vessels in the world, including the new 18, 000 teu mega vessels. It has a depth alongside of 16 metres, and can be deepened to 17 metres to allow any future larger vessels.

It has four new Liebherr super post panamax cranes capable of reaching across ships 24 containers wide, and a fifth Liebherr crane has been relocated from elsewhere in the terminal to ensure the new berth has the capability to turn ships around quickly and efficiently.

Managing director at DP World Southampton Chris Lewis said: “This is a historic moment and represents the culmination of years of hard work by ABP and DPWS project teams and millions of pounds of investment.

Improved Turnarounfd Times

“The whole team at Southampton has worked really hard to ensure our ship turnaround times, crane rates and landside operations are the best in the country and this new facility underpins our continuous improvement ethos.”

Southampton also has an ongoing dredging programme which will deepen the main approach channel to the Port of Southampton, improving the access for bigger vessels.

A total of £100 million has been invested in the new berth, cranes and main channel dredge by Associated British Ports (ABP) and the port owner.