5 minute read
Signs of an Uplift
Steve Cameron sees positive indicators for short-sea shipping and UK small ports. Funding, autonomous vessel plans and off shore wind are all playing their part
Today, short sea shipping accounts for about 40 percent of all goods moved across the globe. It plays a signifi cant role in serving intra-European trade as well as trade with and between the states surrounding the Baltic, Black and the Mediterranean seas.
Over the past few years, the interest in short sea shipping has increased, especially in Europe. Shipping companies realise the benefits of short sea shipping, and the EU has a strategic interest in ensuring the continuous development of short sea shipping and shifting the load from the road to the more sustainable option of maritime transport.
The development of the 40ft & 45ft pallet wide high cube containers, by organisations such as Andrew Weir Shipping, (part of CMA-CGM since 2003) provide a cubic capacity close to that provided by curtain sided-trailers and enable ship operators to successfully compete with road transport on pricing and transit times, moving cargo from the Iberian Peninsula via multimodal connected services of trains and ships to Northern Europe. Maersk, in a similar vein, claims its new Spain-UK rail service can not only reduce exporter emissions by 90 per cent but can also help tackle Europe’s worsening driver and congestion crises as well as offer more than 90 per cent less CO2 emissions than a truck.
Moving goods from road to short sea has a positive impact on road congestion, road safety, and noise levels. Fewer heavy vehicles on the roads contributes to smoother traffic flows, safer driving, and trucks staying on schedule. However, none of this would be possible without the contribution of the complex network of ports serving short sea shipping, many of them significantly less visible than the well-known major ports serving global trade.
As with many other countries, the UK’s extensive coastline coupled with inland waterways, provides an extensive array of ports, including the smaller harbours, that provide a network around the UK, but where their contribution to reducing truck miles goes largely unnoticed.
UK EXPERIENCE
Research by H R Wallingford, highlights that: “they provide a much more carbon-efficient way to transport freight compared to other transport modes, where the additional carbon advantages of coastal shipping will also be further enhanced by the international air emission and engine efficiency requirements being implemented via the IMO.” It also notes that: “within the shipping domain, smaller ports serving the coastal shipping market are in a strong position to gain from the adoption of autonomous or semiautonomous coastal shipping and feeder traffic. This is mainly because they are less exposed to the legal and insurance complexities of crossing international jurisdictions. Ship semi-autonomy has the potential to deliver further carbon savings by allowing for better use of space in ship design and efficient use of fuel.”
Despite these positive observations, the amount of freight moved by ships around the UK’s coasts has dropped significantly. Further, this historic decline in coastal shipping is matched by an uptake in the share of the freight market taken by road transport. The reasons are complex but are partly due to economic development in the UK moving the freight commodity mix away from bulk products. This has been reinforced by the historic differential in national infrastructure investment in the UK, which has focused on road and rail transport with less direct public investment in port infrastructure beyond road and rail connectivity.
Ports operate on tight margins, and capital investment in the maritime space is costly. To a large degree, ports in the
Credit: British ports association 8 Shoreham port,
on the UK’s south coast, is a busy handler of diverse cargoes and has just added to its agenda the development of a green energy hub
Environmental consciousness is playing to the strengths of short-sea ‘‘ shipping and small ports
UK operate without public sector support. So major public sector investment directly to support coastal shipping would therefore seem unlikely. Nevertheless, policy support is emerging and the recently announced UK Governmentfunded CMDC programme of research and development in ‘clean maritime’ plus UK policy favouring autonomous shipping innovation are encouraging developments.
Such initiatives promise to facilitate cost efficiencies that will increase the commercial attractiveness of coastal shipping. Allied to this are positive pressures from the private sector, including major retailers who are seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of their respective supply chains.
OFFSHORE WIND CATALYST
Another major catalyst behind changes in coastal shipping is the offshore wind sector. The UK is a large player in the sector, with a current (2021) installed base of just over 10 GW with plans laid to increase offshore wind energy generation to at least 40 GW by 2030. The transfer of components and crew for the construction and operation of these facilities do not in themselves contribute to coastal freight shipping but they are helping smaller ports diversify from traditional bulk cargoes such as coal and steel and are attracting local production start-ups for wind farm components and HVDC cables for the arrays connecting wind farms.
Richard Ballentyne of the British Ports Association explains that whilst big ports provide focal points for the main UK national logistics gateways, stimulating investment, jobs and trade, there are 1700 ports and port facilities in the UK, where many smaller ports do exactly the same on a regional basis. This, he underlines, brings port facilities closer to the source or end delivery of product, that sustains local business which, in turn, creates efficiencies that keep costs down and provides industry with a number of choices of smaller ports (and supply chains) rather than just one big one.
Ballentyne quotes examples of coastal shipping, “taking a huge numbers of truck miles off the road. Shoreham with its local deliveries of steel, timber and aggregates. Montrose with its timber links and Troon providing trade with Mull of Kintyre.
They do face challenges, however, and notably keeping pace with bigger ports who can pay staff more and at a company level experience shows sourcing investment for expansion can be problematic.
Smaller ports also face the challenges of scale, notes Ballentyne, “It can be difficult to get the economic benefits, with smaller throughputs while staff often have to be a “jack of all trades.” On the the other hand, he suggests, this variety can be an attraction to employees, especially where it is possible to work through the ranks locally, to become the CEO.” The result is long term relationships with stakeholders and the community, that enable a more powerful and positive relationship. Such factors, he concludes, are surely the essential foundations for the continued success of the UK’s essential but less visible smaller ports.
8 The multi-
