Future Ports: Wales Vision Suppliers Careers

Other Businesses

ABP Property

Our property division brings together an unrivalled land bank spanning 21 multi-modal locations around the country, with 960 hectares of port-based development land.

ABPmer

Drawing on 60 years of experience, ABP Marine Environmental Research (ABPmer) provides specialist marine environmental research and consultancy services.

UK Dredging

UK Dredging (UKD) operates the largest British-owned dredging fleet and specialises in the provision of reliable and cost effective port maintenance dredging services.

Building a strong northern economy is now more important than ever following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. As the gateway to the Northern Powerhouse, the Humber Ports have an amazing opportunity to drive growth in the economy of the North.

The Humber is already the UK’s busiest trading estuary. Combined, the four ports of Goole, Grimsby, Hull and Immingham handle around 16% of the UK’s maritime trade. However, as we progress the Brexit negotiations and as the Northern Powerhouse begins to take shape, the Humber is poised to seize the opportunities these big events present.

There are around 40,000 shipping movements in the Humber every year, mostly related to the import and export of trade. Our ports support local industry and manufacturing and provide businesses in the North, the Midlands and beyond with essential access to customers all over the world.

Together with our customers, our ports in the Humber support 23,000 jobs in the region and contribute £2.2 billion to the UK economy every year, including £1.5 billion to the Humber regional economy.

The ports on the Humber are fundamentally important to the North’s economy and to the success of the Northern Powerhouse. The Northern Powerhouse presents a unique opportunity for the region and one
which ABP believes must be taken.

The Humber ports contribute £2.2 billion to the UK economy every year.

ABP’s Humber ports have a major role to play in shaping economic growth in the North. Ports on the Humber offer northern industry and manufacturers unparalleled access to international markets, supporting growth in trade and exports.

As a port region, the Humber is also primed to meet the economic agenda laid out by Transport for the North: focusing on offshore and renewable energy and advanced manufacturing. Indeed, ABP’s ports on the Humber offer ideal locations to attract further investment in new manufacturing thanks to areas of development land with excellent marine, road and rail access.

Brexit presents a number of opportunities, as well as challenges, and ABP is focused on making sure that the Humber, and the North more generally, benefits from those opportunities. That is why we will continue to invest in new port facilities and infrastructure on behalf of our customers, helping their businesses to grow. For many
of our customers, it is very much business as usual, with cargo to move and ships to operate, not to mention a world-class wind turbine manufacturing facility in Hull to run. Green Port Hull, commissioned this year with £150 million investment from ABP in a joint venture with Siemens is delivering growth in the renewable energy sector and changing the way we think about ports. 

The Government’s industrial strategy will also have a critical role to play in the future Northern Powerhouse. Promoting trade and increasing exports must be a central objective of that Strategy. Further, a transformative strategy will depend on working with government to make sure that policy across a wide range of areas – from education to transport – is aligned to achieving that objective. The Northern Powerhouse can take the lead in helping to shape this approach.

How can ABP support this? Well the range of sectors supported by ABP Humber is considerable and growth in our ports will be a significant catalyst for growth in  many sectors and will be felt across the North of England and beyond. In terms of energy, we have an enormous role to play.

Whether it is handling coal or biomass bound for power stations, supporting oil refineries or facilitating huge growth in the offshore wind elements of renewable energy, ABP Humber is heavily involved in them all. A good example of the pivotal role in energy Humber ports play can be seen in the Humber International Terminal (HIT) in Immingham, which helps to keep lights on for one in ten of the nation’s homes. In the last two years, we have invested around £130 million in creating the new Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal as part of HIT with a dedicated biomass handling facility, the largest of its kind in the UK.

Together with our customers, our ports in the Humber support 23,000 jobs in the region and contribute £2.2 billion to the UK economy every year, including £1.5 billion to the Humber regional economy.

In terms of the automotive sector, ABP Humber handled more than 840,000 vehicles in 2016, transporting and distributing cars all across the UK from the continent and exporting UK manufactured cars overseas.

ABP in the Humber also plays a significant role in container shipping, a sector with large potential for growth.
ABP’s Humber Container Terminals in Hull and Immingham have seen a 41% growth in volumes since 2013, and this has led us recently to invest £50 million expanding and improving the offer at those terminals to meet increasing demand. The performance of container shipping is a useful barometer of the strength of trade generally and in the Humber, ABP is showing considerable signs for optimism.

Over the last two years there has been a considerable change to the way ABP is managed in the Humber to align ourselves better to seizing the opportunities in front of us. Over the next five years our business plan includes a focus on growth. When all factors are combined it is clear that there has never been a more exciting time for the Humber Ports.