Above: Humber Container Terminal in Hull
For most businesses, the last two years have been tumultuous by any standards. The changing picture over Brexit and the challenges that Covid has brought have made finding ways to grow in that context difficult. For ABP, we have found the most effective way is investment.
ABP’s four ports on the Humber of Goole, Hull, Immingham and Grimsby are already the largest port complex in the UK, but with hugely competitive markets, that position is not set in stone. To help maintain our position and to grow, we have been steadily investing in our assets and infrastructure to keep us competitive.
Last month, we announced an £8 million investment in a new storage facility in the Port of Hull which is helping our customer Frontier to grow their business in the agriculture sector, exporting and importing wheat, barley, beans, rice and maize. In the same month, we took delivery of a new state-of-the-art pilot launch vessel, the first of nine new launches ABP has invested around £9 million in, to upgrade our marine infrastructure and help us to bring ships into ports safely.
A few months ago, ABP completed our £6.8 million installation of a huge commercial solar array in the Port of Hull. Added to similar installations in Goole and Immingham in recent times, we are now able to generate almost a third of our energy needs ourselves, with green energy.
Arguably, the jewel in the crown of our recent investments is the £50 million expansion and upgrade of our two container terminals in Immingham and Hull, which was completed towards the end of last year.
What is becoming increasingly clear, is that all of these investments, along with several others we have made, are key to the recent growth we are seeing across the Humber Ports. Customers want to know that their logistics supply chain has the right infrastructure, not just to handle goods efficiently, but also to help reduce their carbon footprint. For this reason, the common thread that runs through every investment we have made is sustainability. Providing the right equipment, in an environmentally friendly way has become core business to ABP. Investing in that way is attracting customers in competitive markets to make a positive choice to bring trade through the Humber.
There are several new major investments in the Humber in the pipeline, which hopefully will help us to grow for several years to come.
