DP World Southampton has announced that it has taken over an extra 11.2 acres of land at the north east edge of the terminal, creating 640 extra ground spaces to store containers and bringing the size of the terminal to almost 100ha.
As well as creating more container capacity, the 11.2 acres supports operations at SCT 5 – the terminal’s newest and largest deep-water berth, which opened in March, 2014.
The new land behind this berth enables shorter run distances for straddle carriers taking containers to and from the stack, improving productivity overall.
Nick Loader, CEO of DP World Southampton, said: “Container ships are getting bigger all the time. The 11.2 acres of new land will allow us to increase the utilisation of SCT 5.
“It will also help us to be much more efficient so that DP World Southampton can continue to load and unload vessels faster than any other container terminal in the UK. Our customers tell us that we are the most productive terminal in the UK and we intend to stay that way.”
The terminal operator’s expansion plans also include investment in 17 new straddle carriers, being manufactured by Kalmar in Poland, to replace older equipment and bring DP World Southampton’s fleet more up to date.
The expansion plans also include the purchase of two new additional super post-panamax cranes scheduled for delivery in early 2018.
The size of container ships importing and exporting goods around the world has nearly doubled in just under 10 years.
The world’s largest container ships regularly call at DP World Southampton including the MSC Diana at 19,462 TEU.
However, there are already 21,000 TEU vessels on order for delivery during 2017.
Fact File: DP World Southampton is one of two terminals owned and operated by DP World in the UK including DP World London Gateway, on the River Thames estuary. DP World Southampton has been voted the UK’s number one performing terminal and, with its sister terminal on the Thames, provides unrivalled, quick and easy access to the key consumer markets in the UK. DP World Southampton has five berths capable of handling three ultra large container carriers (ULCCs) simultaneously, served by 15 quayside cranes and a fleet of flexible straddle carriers. The terminal is directly connected to 34 ports throughout Asia and provides the fastest landside turnaround times for in-land distribution through the UK.