Associated British Ports (ABP) has announced that it handled over 1 million tonnes of exports and imports since the start of the year, making 2023 a record-breaking year for the port.
This was the first time the port has supported over 1 million tonnes of exports and imports of various products in this five-month period.
On 30 May, around 13,500 tonnes of Urea Fertiliser arrived at the port from Damietta, Egypt on board the MV Selecta, enabled the port to break through the million-tonne mark.
According to ABP, this was the largest fertiliser vessel to visit the port this year and was discharged using ABP’s dual-powered (electric and diesel) Mantsinen cranes.
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The Port of Ipswich handles a wide variety of commodities, and ABP has recently marked 25 years of its ownership of the port, as well as the tenure of Clarkson’s Port Services (CPS) at the port’s Sentinel Terminal.
In those 25 years, the port has celebrated several milestones, including becoming the UK’s number one grain export port, which it has remained as every year since 2004.
ABP has also invested £49.6 million ($62.4 million) in the port since 2012 and handled 68.4 million tonnes of cargo between 1997 and 2022.
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Andrew Harston, Regional Director, Wales, and Short Sea Ports, ABP said: “This fantastic achievement is testament to the hard-working team at ABP’s Port of Ipswich at the and strong support of its customers.
“This milestone further cements Ipswich as a place of strategic national importance in relation to exports and imports, and the role the port plays in Keeping Britain Trading,” added Harston.
In February 2023, ABP announced its new sustainability strategy, Ready for Tomorrow (RFT).