Port of Liverpool & the Manchester Ship Canal become one entity under Peel Ports' management, the UK's second largest ports group. These two dynamic international trading centres form a single 44 mile seaway to the heart of the UK and Britain's richest cargo creating and consuming region outside London. Together, the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal offer a comprehensive range of port facilities, handling more than 40 million tonnes of cargo and 15,000 ship movements a year – making the River Mersey Britain's third busiest estuary.