London Thamesport Celebrates 20th Birthday

Formerly the site of the Kent Oil Refinery, London Thamesport set new standards as one of the world’s first automated terminals, with a capacity of 360,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) when it first opened. Following the acquisition by Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd (‘HPUK’) in 1998, throughput increased to over half a million TEU per year.

David Gledhill, Chief Executive Officer of HPUK, said:

“We are proud to celebrate 20 years of London Thamesport. It is quite incredible how far this port has come in such a short time, serving hundreds of ships every year and providing excellent warehousing, transport and logistics services for all of our clients. It is an important UK hub for deep-sea imports and has some of the finest deep-water facilities nationwide.”

London Thamesport is one of the UK’s leading container ports and remains the only automated container port in the country. It is one of the few UK ports which can handle the largest ships on the market, with a depth alongside of 15m.

HPUK has continued to invest in the facility which is just 35 miles from central London and which has become the first choice for many shippers serving the south east of the UK.

More recently, London Thamesport has spearheaded the development of Port-centric Logistics, from a concept to an industry standard in just a few short years. A number of leading manufacturing brands, backed by their internationally recognised logistics service providers now operate at London Thamesport. The potential for further development is reflected in two third-party proposals for major new distribution facilities on sites totalling over 200 hectares, and serviced by the port.