London Gateway clinches edge on Felixstowe


Did not want to post this article - but I believe that it should not be kept as a secret.

Port congestion at the Port of Felixstowe in England has leading big-name shippers such as Maersk Line and China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) ordering ships up the River Thames to DP World’s London Gateway.

Maersk ordered its Middle East service to unload at London Gateway on August 23 this year, and now it has decided to send another service ship there on August 30.
CSCL has allegedly become tired of waiting for a berth at Felixstowe, advising its customers and partners that Asian imports should be delivered to London.
Customers of Felixstowe suggest that other ships will follow if the situation does not improve, according to the Loadstar.
The congestion has been primarily down to labour shortages and the big growth in imports from Asia, meaning turnaround times have been increasing, thereby exacerbating waiting times for other shippers.
Problems with congestion have already been witnessed in northern Europe this year at the ports ofRotterdam and Hamburg.
The fear for Felixstowe is that DP World London Gateway is edging closer to attaining a prominent Asia-to-Europe shipping line customer on a long-term contract, therefore taking business from the UK’s current largest port.


2 comments made below are on Facebook

They did so well with the xin Beijing that they didn't finish the discharge and it came back to Felixstowe! 12mph doesn't cut the mustard.

You mean the one that got so fed up of waiting for Felixstowe that they went to Gateway - who said they could do all the discharge - yet when they couldn't manage half of it it left Gateway and came BACK to Felixstowe where it was finished in time for it to get back on it's sailing schedule?

Comments

  1. It might help us (Felixstowe) if we didn't have so many broken cranes, plus if our management had the balls to have done the original Landguard extension, Gateway might never have gone ahead, but hey, lets blame the labour force again....

    Swampy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course there won't be congestion at gateway and that's because they don't have the contracts that felixstowe has, London gateways true colours will be shown when their quay is working at capacity, my question is if London gateway could perform and give a good service in that situation?

    ReplyDelete
  3. So when they have finished the "finger quay" where do management think they are going to get the labour force. I know loads of fella's that would love to work here but not on the new contract as they can earn more driving a lorry Some applied the last time and turned it down when they saw the wages

    ReplyDelete
  4. who negotiated those wages in the first place !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. union agreed with management like always

      Delete
  5. They keep blaming labour shortage but they don't say anything about the machinery shortage , the state of the quayside for driving. This ones for the union for allowing the company to train up the cheap subcontractors labour to drive tugs on shipping.grow some balls and say nooooooooo

    ReplyDelete
  6. Send them to us at Tilbury. Plenty of space during the week

    ReplyDelete
  7. i hope atkinson group are happy now if they're interested money in london thamesport like they should of done instead of let it run down so it cannot service ships i wouldn't have this problem gateway would never been built had they invested in thamesports so everything coming to hutchinson they deserve it and i hope they will collapse and i am patrick duffett

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Terry Feaviour(X Port of Felixstowe)31 August 2014 at 17:28

      Nice to see some one with the balls to put their name to a comment

      Delete
    2. Terry hope your enjoying your pension we are funding, things have changed somewhat since you last worked at the port, one good reason to remain anonymous is the people we now work for!

      Delete
  8. Lets be honest we ( POF labour force) deserve what we get, we are short sighted in every aspect of our Port and the people we work along side, we are selfish and never support each others sections, We cannot completely blame the union, we are the union , how many paying union members at the Port ? how many attend a branch meeting where you as an individual can raise any subject you like and if you have the majority our stewards committe have to listen and accept a the majority , who ever you are and what ever service you have under your belt. I agree with you to an extent PD @15.00 but its the working man that will suffer not the board !

    ReplyDelete
  9. Felixstowe can't even turn round 6-7,000 TEU vessels on the MED routes in a reasonable time that's why Seago (Maersk subsidiary) kept pulling their calls due to lack of berthing slots. Considering now post-panamax vessels are all 10,000 TEU+ something had to give and Felixstowe is the one port really dominated by containerisation more than any other ports which also have bulk, LPG or oil terminals too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Don't get complacent peeps, the show isn't over until the fat lady stops singing, keep looking over your shoulders, competition is fierce, no one owes anyone a living, earn your pay and knock the competition for six

    'Retired' from FDRC

    ReplyDelete
  11. With regards to the port of felixstowe getting the xin beijing on schedule how wrong can you be! The port pushed the vessel off schedule she then went to gateway to try and keep on schedule. She came back to complete discharge and to load containers from felixstowe to which the port tried to make the vessel cut and run leaving 500 empties behind. Gateways not perfect but neither is the POF.

    ReplyDelete
  12. that is what pof deserve for only giving people flexi contracts and trying to get rid of permenant contracts. if they get there on way all permanent contracts will go and only flexi contracts will be available . people don't want flexi these days with shit wages and never knowing from one hour to the next if you will get a call to go to work . how many flexi dockers are left from the last lot they employed not many. broken machinery, shit roads, a union that don't care .

    ReplyDelete
  13. don't help when pof also have some lazy dockers want the money but don't want to work . parking up the end of the quay with there feet on the dash board sleeping and watching others work . when they call up 4 times and they still don't answer or move and there nearest to what ever is needed to be done wonder why they cant achieve targets and box moves

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 12 hours of monotonous grind not everyone is lucky enough to sleep well no wonder some nod off personally i would rather they do it out of the way than whilst driving. Yes there are some that take the pee but not all. The management say we should work as a team that we should be proud to work at the pof guess what we used to be and who ruined it? who changed the hours and the conditions ? the management and a union that when it has the chance and the votes to finally do something rolls over to have it's belly tickled.

      Delete
    2. The bad eggs are always in the lime light. We all have the chance to have our say via the union / branch meetings and the management forums. We should all stop looking over our shoulders as to what the other sections are doing and stick together for a better life on the Port.

      Delete

Post a Comment