Port of London 2011 Trade Stable

13-Feb-12

The Port of London Authority (PLA) says that trade through the Port of London in 2011 was 48.8 million tonnes, an increase of 700,000 tonnes, or 1.5%, on 2010.

The biggest increases in throughputs at the UK’s second biggest port were in construction materials, with cement tonnages up by 54% and aggregates up by 26%. Trades in steel and other metals increased by 15.4% and 11% respectively. Trades in unitised cargoes, which covers containers and roll-on/roll-off units increased by 1%.

The biggest single fall in throughout was in coal; no coal was handled on the river in 2011, compared to 740,000 tonnes last year. This followed the ending of coal firing at Tilbury Power Station; the power station has been converted to firing biomass and a trial using wood chip as fuel started this January. Throughputs of cereals, vegetable oils and oil seed all decreased.

“The overall tonnage of goods handled through the port in 2011 was stable,” commented PLA chief executive, Richard Everitt. “That performance is consistent with what we saw last year, when the tonnage handled at terminals along the Thames mirrored what was happening in the wider economy. This is underlined by the slow down in trade that we saw on the river in the last quarter of the year as uncertainty around prospects for the UK economy grew again.

“Prospects for the future are difficult to judge. We have the optimism around the biomass trial at Tilbury Power Station, the expansion at the Port of Tilbury and the DP World container port, counterbalanced by concern about the prospects for the Coryton oil refinery which, in terms of tonnage handled, is one of the busiest terminals on the river.”