Mersey Docks News

Over 500 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain's largest container ports, have launched a two-week strike over pay, the Unite trade union said on Tuesday, adding to a wave of industrial unrest caused by soaring inflation.The Liverpool strike from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3, which was announced earlier this month, will overlap a second walkout by workers at Felixstowe, Britain's top container port, which starts on Sept. 27.More than 560 port operatives and maintenance engineers…

More than 560 dockworkers at the Port of Liverpool, one of Britain's largest container ports, will go on strike from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3 over pay, the Unite union said on Friday, adding to a summer of industrial unrest caused by soaring inflation."Workers across the country are sick to death of being told to take a hit on their wages and living standards," Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement."MDHC needs to think again, table a reasonable offer and fulfil its previous pay promises…

UK port operator Peel Ports Group has been officially accredited with the internationally recognized quality mark of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) at all its principal ports by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customers, affirming the Port’s efficient and robust processes to customers worldwide.The Liverpool based port operator said that achieving AEO status from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs was a “significant milestone” especially on the path towards Brexit.Peel Ports Group has successfully achieved AEO status for the following ports: Clydeport Operations Limited, Port of Sheerness Limited, The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company Limited…

Work on Liverpool2, a new terminal at the Port of LIverpool, has begun. More than one million cubic meters of material will now be moved by dredgers to clear a deep-water channel at the Port of Liverpool (United Kingdom), operated by Peel Ports. The dredging work – funded by a £35 million U.K. Government Regional Growth Fund grant – will create a 16.5-meter deep berthing pocket to secure access to the developing Liverpool2 project. This funding was awarded to the Mersey Docks and Harbor Company by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne last month (May 2013).

The South Australian government expects strong bidder interest in its planned $120 million sale of the state's main ports, but the privatization is facing a political storm. The planned trade sale of the South Australian Ports Corporation has agitated a range of groups, from influential grain growers to the militant dockers union and farmers and tourism operators on the Kangaroo Island resort. The government has seen strong level of interest in the ports at Port Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Port Giles, Thevanard, Klein Point, Wallaroo, and Port Pirie. Hutchison Whampoa, Infrastructure investment group Infratil Australia Ltd., graingrower group South Australian Cooperative Bulk Handling (SACBH), P&O Ports, transport group Toll Holdings Ltd., and Mersey Docks & Harbor Co.

British port operator Mersey Docks said more than 300 jobs will be created by two developments at the port of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey off the north coast of Kent. It said up to 160 jobs would be created by the construction of a pre-delivery inspection center for imported Peugeot Citroen cars before they are dispatched to showrooms, and a further 150 from the development of a fruit packing plant.

Merrill Lynch downgraded its intermediate-term rating on Mersey Docks & Harbour Plc to "accumulate" from "buy," while keeping a long-term "acumulate" rating on the stock. "We believe MDK's attractive valuation by itself is not compelling enough to support a dramatic re-rating," Merrill analysts said in a research note. They cut their 12-month price objective on the stock to 620 pence from 665p. – (Reuters)

Mersey Docks and Harbor Co. is investing 8.8 million pounds in the South African Capespan Group's fruit terminals. Mersey Docks -- Britain's second largest port group -- said it was buying half the equity in Capespan's terminal operations at the ports of Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Maputo in Mozambique. "Mersey Docks will gain from being actively involved in the export of all South African fresh produce, not just to the UK through the port of Sheerness but to all corners of the globe," Mersey Docks chief executive Peter Jones said. Mersey Docks and Capespan have already collaborated on a 35 million pound fresh produce terminal opened in Sheerness in 1999. - (Reuters)

Mersey Docks & Harbour Co. reported a marginal rise in pre-tax profit on Thursday and a successful year in terms of growth and progress. Pre-tax profit before exceptionals rose to 52.3 million pounds from 52 million in the previous year, on a 21 percent turnover rise to 229.9 million pounds. The results were well in line with market expectations. The company underlined the fact that profits had increased despite an estimated three million pound impact from the temporary closure of a Dublin container terminal. Industrial action caused by the decision to re-organize and re-equip the terminal led to its temporary closure from September 15 last year and the dispute pulled down the shipping division's results. - (Reuters)

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Mersey ferry services are at risk of chaos after part of its landing stage at the Pier Head sank. Fire crews were called out to help evacuate staff and remove equipment from the landing stage, which is also used by the Mersey inshore rescue boat, at around 10 pm on March 1. It is believed exceptionally high tides were responsible for the sinking, which left the landing stage partially under water. Staff from Merseytravel and the Mersey Docks and Harbor Company, which own the stage, as well as the inshore rescue boat, were at the site to assess the damage. It is not known how long ferry services will be disrupted, or the extent of the damage.

The slowdown in the U.S. economy may be weighing on British industrial production, but ports operator Mersey Docks & Harbor Company expects to avoid the dark clouds of recession. "We have as yet not experienced any impact from the perceived slowdown in the North American market," Chief Executive Peter Jones reportedly said. The company expected instead to see year-on-year growth in cross-Atlantic traffic. Mersey Docks has about a 25 percent share of the U.S.-UK market in container traffic. "In the early months of this year we are continuing to see strong growth," Jones said. The two main areas of development would be RoRo traffic and fresh produce, handled at the company's docks in Sheerness, southeastern England.

Ship repair outfit A&P Group Holdings said on Friday it bought the dockyards of insolvent shipbuilder Cammell Laird, but there was no reprieve for the 204 workers of the northern English firm. A spokeswoman for Cammell Laird's receivers PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said the remaining staff at the shipyards would be wound down but no deadline had been set. Cammell Laird collapsed in April after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances. Earlier this month the firm, a symbol of the decline in British shipbuilding, announced it was to axe 330 U.K. jobs on top of more than 600 job cuts made earlier this year. Among the famous boats put to sea from Cammell Laird's Mersey docks were the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the Alabama, a raider designed to fight in the U.S. civil war.

Mersey Docks and Harbour Co. has reported an increase in profits of nearly eight percent in the first half, its shares following suit with a similar rise. Representatives of Mersey, which owns the Port of Liverpool and the ports of Sheerness and Chatham in southeast England, said the company’s investment program was reaping rewards as it managed to push up profits despite flat volumes of cargo. The program was buoyed by achieving record volumes in two key market sectors — containers and Irish Sea roll-on roll-off freight — which gave it a better overall mix of cargo, officials added. This helped compensate for the loss of nearly a million tons of business due to the ban made effective Jan. 1 on the dumping of river sludge out at sea.

Mozambique has awarded a British consortium a management contract for its Maputo port, including a 15-year lease, according to the British High Commission. Officials said a consortium headed by the British Mersey Docks and Harbor Co. - which runs the port of Liverpool - had won the contract, which allows for the private management of the port. The agreement will reportedly lead to $50 million investment in revamping the port, though it wasn't immediately clear how this would be financed.

Mersey Docks and Harbour Company Plc, the U.K.'s number two port operator last week said full-year profits reached record levels. The group, which owns the Port of Liverpool, said pre-tax profits rose 9.2 percent to $82.52 million, while turnover rose 5.7 percent. A rise in passenger traffic from Liverpool to Dublin, and the amount of fruit handled at the Sheerness port, near London, boosted earnings. Mersey Docks Chairman Gordon Waddell and CEO Trevor Furlong have both advocated the consolidation of Britain's port industry, and Waddell said Mersey Docks would benefit from any consolidation due to its strong cash flow.

THE UK's largest ports and ferries operator was reported to be a £3 billion takeover target of a Middle Eastern rival. P&O could receive an approach from Dubai Ports World (DPW) as soon as this week after it hired Deutsche Bank to advise it on a bid, according to The Sunday Times. The Middle Eastern firm is understood to have contacted banks about financing a bid for P&O, which owns 27 container terminals around the world including Southampton and Tilbury in the UK. Takeover interest in UK ports firms has spiralled this year with Mersey Docks & Harbour - the owner of ports at Liverpool, Heysham and the Medway towns of Sheerness and Chatham - bought by Manchester-based Peel Holdings for £780 million.