Regular readers of my visit reports may recall recent accounts from some of England’s historic ports: Liverpool, founded in the 18th century; Felixstowe, dating from the 19th century; and Immingham, built in the 20th century. Recently, my colleague Lisa and I embarked on an extensive two-day visit to the UK’s newest 21st-century port facility: London Gateway.
The Port of London encompasses over 70 independently owned terminals and facilities along the Thames, handling approximately ten percent of the UK’s shipping traffic. The latest addition is London Gateway, a deep-sea container terminal that opened in 2013 on the north bank of the river in Thurrock, Essex. In June, operator DP World won Multimodal’s ‘Port Company of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year, partly due to their £350 million investment in London Gateway’s new all-electric fourth berth, which includes four new automated stacking cranes (ASCs). DP World claims this container port is the fastest-growing and most technologically advanced in the UK.
Alongside the port facility, 1,500 acres of remediated land, formerly the Shell Haven Oil Refinery, has been under development since 2018 to build a fully integrated logistics hub, featuring dozens of modern warehouses. During our tour we visited seven of the tenants.
Five years ago, Ceva moved into a seven chamber site known as The Chill Hub, which also includes some ambient storage. Products like sugar must be kept warm and dry, while palletised fruits and vegetables are managed according to market demand. Each shipment of tomatoes or oranges has a separate SKU reference, indicating its origin.
Ziegler recently secured a new contract to store rice and moved from a smaller unit at London Gateway to this much larger 55,000-pallet site, formerly occupied by Made.com. Some lightweight racking for furniture had to be replaced to increase versatility, and a grand new suite of offices now serves as Ziegler’s European headquarters.
Magnum, a privately owned business, invited us onto the roof to view their impressive array of solar panels and rainwater-harvesting equipment, as well as the magnificent vistas across the entire port complex. This location is ideal for Magnum’s clients and enables them to participate in the Palletways network.
DP World operates a former P&O warehouse within their own Logistics Park, storing a vast range of industrial goods such as reels of paper, drums of cables, metal ingots, and hundreds of pallets of imported solar panels, supplying installation projects across the UK.
Cosco Shipping’s subsidiary Crystal Logistics relocated to London Gateway a year ago from Basildon. They specialise in construction logistics, using powerful equipment to handle wooden cladding panels and 275kg planters destined for a new high profile office development in central London. The drivers of HIAB and VNA trucks demonstrated their skills for us.
London City Bond, with sixteen bonded warehouses across the UK, specialises in beers, wines, and spirits. They use VNA racking with multi-level picking. At the copacking station, we observed staff performing value-added services like fixing duty stamps or address labels to each bottle for legal compliance and creating gift packs of well-known branded spirits.
DHL’s London Gateway operation launched last summer, complementing their existing site at East Midlands Gateway, both serving their client Mars. An enormous 11-aisle ASRS, installed by Dematic, has a capacity for over 90,000 pallets, with cough sweets and chewing gum stored separately in the ‘taint chamber’ to prevent their strong aromas from contaminating other goods.
This visit highlighted the interconnected networks that drive logistics solutions. To foster economic growth and provide customer value, 3PLs rely on DP World to develop state-of-the-art facilities, while specialist suppliers fit them out with racking, MHE and automation. Shipping lines transport containers from the Far East, and hauliers and couriers distribute consignments across the UK. It was a pleasure to share part of this visit with colleagues from the Essex Chamber of Commerce, reminding us that the Chamber and the UK Warehousing Association are integral to this ecosystem as well. Special thanks to everyone who welcomed us, especially Andy Browning and the team at DP World.
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