FELIXSTOWE, the UK's largest container port, has handled its 70th million TEU since it started in the mid-1960s, which was recently loaded aboard the 13,800-TEU MSC Bettina.
To mark the occasion, the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin drove the gantry crane that load the box in the vessel.
Owned by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, the facility has benefited from the level of investment its unit, Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, made to enable the transit of a record 3.7 million TEU in 2012, almost half of the containers handled at all British ports.
Mr McLoughlin said investment was key to the success of the port over the last 30 years, and that it has supported Britain's shipping industry which brings in GBR24 million (US$37.5 million) a year.
Hutchinson UK chief executive Clemence Cheng said its location on the Greenwich Meridian means it can be at the centre of the shipping world and in a time zone in which it can do business with both sides of the world in a single day.
The port's North Rail Terminal, co-financed by the EU's Trans-European Transport Network, will open shortly and double rail capacity.
PORTS
22 August 2013 - 22:02
Felixstowe marks 70 million TEU with transport minister loading the box
FELIXSTOWE, the UK's largest container port, has handled its 70th million TEU since it started in the mid-1960s, which was recently loaded aboard the 13,800-TEU MSC Bettina.
PORTS
22 August 2013 - 22:02
Felixstowe marks 70 million TEU with transport minister loading the box
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