ABP, the owner of Britain's busiest port complex, plans to double the capacity of two container terminals on the Humber at Hull and Immingham, in northern England, at a cost of GBP50 million (US$62.46 million). The investment comes after volumes rose by 41 per cent since 2013.
"We have seen significant growth at our Humber container terminals in recent years and all the indications are that this will continue despite Brexit," said ABP Humber director Simon Bird, calling the investments "a huge vote of confidence in the economy of the north of England at this crucial time," reported The Financial Times.
The port operator is purchasing four new cranes for Hull to boost annual terminal capacity to 250,000 TEU. Immingham will be enlarged and new equipment will be installed to raise capacity to 300,000 TEU. Combined the two ports handled 262,000 TEU in 2016.
The UK's container throughput was up just one per cent last year to 23.8 million units, including vehicles. However, ABP is betting box throughput will increase. As a result, it plans to invest GBP1 billion across its 21 British ports over the next five years.
Since the referendum, the port operator has already invested GBP50 million in a car handling terminal in Southampton, mainly for export of vehicles manufactured in Britain.
"Brexit represents opportunities for port-based, export led manufacturing, particularly if the government was able to introduce free trade zones at ports," Mr Bird was quoted as saying. "This would provide great opportunities for customers to reduce costs for inbound materials and also take advantage of spare capacity in containers, trucks and ships, to re-export."