How will shipping giant’s move affect major port?

As a major container shipping company announces its larger vessels will stop using the Port of Felixstowe, what impact will that have?

Maersk said the changes would take effect in February following a review of its Asia-Europe shipping routes.

The firm said it had concluded the London Gateway on the Thames estuary in Essex was “the most optimal port to serve our customers” in the UK.

The BBC understands Maersk has two of its giant container ships docking each week, that will soon go to London Gateway.

About 2,000 ships call at Felixstowe each year, carrying about four million containers (measured as 20ft equivalent units or TEUs).

About six giant container ships arrive at the Suffolk port each week on the Asia-Europe route – two of which are Maersk’s.

About 2,250 people work at the huge site, and some 1,900 took part in industrial action over pay in 2022.

Mark Ling, agency director for ICE Transport haulage in Ipswich, said the announcement by Maersk was a “big deal” but not “unexpected”.

“There’s jobs at Felixstowe in terms of trucking, warehousing, distribution, trailers and also people that work on container lines at the port, and that will transfer from Felixstowe to London,” he said.

Mr Ling said Felixstowe was still an “amazing port” but transport infrastructure issues around Ipswich had held back progress:

• the A14 Orwell Bridge closing in high winds or due to accidents

• the Ipswich northern bypass proposal being put on the backburner

• having only a single track railway between Felixstowe and Ipswich

He said: ” We’ve spent 40 years and we haven’t moved forwards in terms of our infrastructure and if you don’t move forward, other people will take your business.”

Peter Wilson, managing director of Ipswich logistics firm Cory Brothers, said he had heard the “disappointing” news was coming, but it was still a surprise.

Mr Wilson said he expected other shipping firms to fill the spaces left when Maersk moved some of its business away from the port, which he hoped would help secure jobs.

On concerns about road and rail infrastructure he said he did not believe that was a significant part of Maersk’s decision and they were probably “streamlining the portfolio of ports they were calling at”.

Speaking to the BBC in April, when Maersk announced it was expanding its office facilities in Felixstowe, the company’s managing director for the UK, Gary Jeffreys, said Maersk had been at Felixstowe for 40 years.

He called Felixstowe “a huge entry point from a logistics perspective for us”.

“Felixstowe has 17 rail services a week for us from the port and multiple different contractors and partners that we partner with on the roadside,” he said.

“We’ve invested quite significantly in rail; I think that needs to be the focus of both the government and local government to ensure we’ve got the right rail paths.”

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce said pressure needed to be applied to government for “both for the speedy approval of the Ely/Haughley rail junctions and the accelerated investment in the A14 corridor, including the Orwell Bridge and the Copdock Interchange, and the wider roads network across all points of the compass in and around Ipswich”.

In a statement on its website, Maersk said the changes were part of the Gemini Co-operation, which is a review of its network carried out with the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company.

“During this optimisation process… we have concluded that London Gateway is the most optimal port to serve our customers importing/exporting cargo to/from the UK,” it said.

“Due to this change, Felixstowe will not be a part of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s shared Gemini network.”

The Port of Felixstowe, which is owned by Hutchison Ports which has its headquarters in Hong Kong, has been asked for comment.

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