CMA CGM Increases Global Trade to Liverpool

CMA CGM has backed Peel Ports’ £300m Liverpool2 development by doubling the frequency of its feeder service to the port.

CMA CGM now offers twice-weekly calls in Liverpool from its hub in Le Havre, France and a new weekly call at Greenock, Scotland and Cork, Ireland. Weekly calls to Dublin and Belfast were already established.

The company’s expansion into Liverpool will take advantage of Peel Ports’ established Green Highway Network, a shuttle service which carries freight 44 miles inland using the Manchester Ship Canal.

Ross Thompson, commercial director of Peel Ports, said, “Increasing capacity in this way means container carriers unloading at the completed Liverpool2 development from across the globe will benefit from rapid, seamless forwarding of goods to Ireland and Scotland, as well as on to Europe via CMA CGM’s hub in Le Havre.”

The new route will see deep sea containers – which have been transported to Europe from the Far East – coming in to the Port of Liverpool on a feeder service from Le Havre twice a week. The service will go on to call at Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Greenock once a week.

The service will also allow empty containers that would otherwise be moved to Greenock via road or rail to be transported by sea. These containers will serve the Scottish drinks export market, and be shipped back to the Far East.

Peel Ports owns container terminals in Dublin, Belfast and Greenock. The ports are linked by ships from BG Freight Line and Coastal Container Line, also owned by Peel Ports, making up the company’s Irish Sea Hub network.

The Port of Liverpool carries more than 33m tons of cargo every year, and is the U.K.’s leading west coast port.

When completed in 2015, the Port’s deep-water container terminal, to be known as Liverpool2, will accommodate two of the new breed of post Panamax container ships at one time.

The development will attract some of the world’s largest container vessels to a centrally-located U.K. distribution hub which boasts a population of 35 million consumers within a radius of 150 miles.

Peel Ports’ investment –  funded by a £35 million U.K. Government Regional Growth Fund grant –  will enable container ships from around the world to connect directly with the northern half of the U.K. and Ireland, and so serve an annual market estimated at around four million TEUs.

Work has already started on the Liverpool2 project, with dredging operations to create a 16.5m-deep berthing pocket well underway.