DP World has announced that work has started on site to build a new fourth berth at its London Gateway smart logistics hub.
The resilience of the UK supply chain will be strengthened by the £350m project, the cargo logistics firm said.
Furtermore, the project builds on DP World’s £2bn investment in the UK over the last decade. On completion in 2024, the fourth berth will lift London Gateway’s capacity by a third, giving it more room to handle the world’s largest vessels than any other port in the country.
Ernst Schulze, UK chief executive of DP World, said: “I am delighted that we have taken the next step in delivery of the new fourth berth and made clear our commitment to investing in and regenerating the areas where we operate. Over the next 10 years we have earmarked a further £1bn of investment in this country.”
“The construction of the new fourth berth is creating 1,000 jobs and London Gateway’s rapidly growing logistics park will employ 12,000 people when it is completed in five years’ time. Our investment is a catalyst for the regeneration of one of the most deprived areas in the UK, which is currently in the top decile of deprivation.”
DP World operates some of the UK’s most advanced logistics hubs: two deep water ports at London Gateway and Southampton with access to freight rail terminals, and a rapidly expanding logistics park on the doorstep of the capital. By offering a choice of deep-water entry and exit points to and from the country, the leading provider of smart logistics solutions is giving greater flexibility to shipping lines, cargo owners and exporters.
In a record for the port, DP World announced in July that London Gateway handled more than one million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in six months between January and June. When factoring in throughput at Southampton this performance contributed to a record volume of cargo in the first half of the year for DP World’s ports in the UK, with a combined total of 1,937,000 TEU.
