Port of London Handles Ever Bigger Vessels

Port of London UKs Port of London Authority (PLA) saw larger ships calling in 2015 as the tonnage of cargo handled at Thames terminals climbed by 2 percent to 45.4 million tonnes compared to 2014. Last year a number of operators introduced new, bigger ships and records were broken. The record breakers included container ship, UASC Barzan and cruise ship Viking Star, PLA chief executive, Robin Mortimer, said. Since August, the Port of Tilbury has welcomed over 20 calls from Grimaldi’s new-generation, larger capacity con-ro ships, operating on routes between Europe and West Africa. Longer and wider than their predecessors, they are handled at Tilbury’s new landing stage berth, rather than in the docks. Port of London added that the tonnage of cargo handled at terminals on the Thames last year was 45.4 million tonnes, 0.9 million tonnes up on 2014. Growth was principally in containers and trailers which were up by 4 percent to 16.9 million tonnes; while aggregates and cement increased from 9.7 million tonnes to 10.7 million tonnes. Oil trades fell by 8 percent to 10.9 million tonnes, with volumes particularly low at the beginning of year, the port authority said.