Bigger Ships Put Pressure on All Ports

DP World said it is making infrastructure improvements at ports worldwide

The growing size of ships on the market will force even smaller ports to adjust, major terminal operator DP World told industry news site ShippingWatch.

Huge new ships like Maersk Line's Triple E vessels are poised to dominate the Asia-Europe route, which will have a cascading effect, pushing the next-largest group of ships to trade lanes like Asia-Africa, Europe-South America, or intra-Asia routes.

Some ports on those lanes are not prepared for such ships, with sizes of 10,000 to 13,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), and will need to invest in new facilities and equipment, such as larger cranes.

"There are massive requirements for the ports and the companies that operate them, especially when the port is upriver," said Flemming Dalgaard, senior vice president and managing director of DP World's Europe Regional Office.

"In the Port of Hamburg, there are a lot of environmental considerations to keep in mind, as well as the fact that many ports weren't designed to have ships of 400 meters turning around in the port basin, and many ports don't have berths wide enough to support ships of that size."

DP World has already invested in its port network along the Asia-Europe shipping lane, including Rotterdam, London, and Asian ports.

In Rotterdam, the ports operator and four major carriers are investing about €700 million ($932 million) in new facilities and equipment at the new Maasvlakte 2 facility, and DP World is also investing about £1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) at the London Gateway container port on the Thames, with both facilities designed to support mega ships.

In addition to port facilities, larger ships may require infrastructure improvements, including expanded railroad and highway capacity, to handle cargoes from the ships.

"We have to look at the needs practically everywhere in the time to come, in order to make sure that we're ready to handle the new, bigger ships," Dalgaard said.

"But we believe that we're well-equipped to handle the challenge in most of our container terminals."

Maersk Line said last month that the Triple-E ships will have to operate below capacity on their first trips because many port gantries are not yet tall enough to handle their height when fully loaded.