A £1 billion investment to expand London Gateway was announced this week, which could make the Essex container port the largest in the UK within the next five years.
Owners DP World confirmed the expansion plans at the weekend after they were nearly derailed by a government minister calling for a boycott of P&O Ferries last week, a subsidiary company of theirs.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh was pushing for the boycott following P&O’s actions in 2022 when 800 British employees were replaced. She publicly described the company as a ‘cowboy operator’, before Prime Minister Keir Starmer intervened and declared her opinion was “not the view of the government”.
The plan includes the building of two new berths, which will increase its capacity to 6 berths along a 1.5 miles long quay and improving its capabilities to handle modern supersized container ships.
London Gateway will be capable of handling six vessels of over 400m long simultaneously, and the plans also include the building of a second rail freight terminal.
The company have stated that the expansion will create 400 more permanent jobs and will make London Gateway the UK’s largest container port by the end of the decade.
