By Jonathan Saul

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Peel Ports, considered one of Britain’s largest port operators, expects to resist the container transport stoop with a daring venture aimed toward attracting cargo to Liverpool away from southern gateways, its chief government stated.

The container market, which ships retail items from iPhones to designer garments and meals merchandise, has been hit onerous by a slowdown in demand for items from Asia, particularly China.

The Baltic alternate’s principal sea freight index, which gauges the price of transport dry bulk commodities akin to coal, has fallen to the bottom stage since information is accessible on the China slowdown.

Peel Ports, which competes with Associated British Ports, has invested greater than 300 million kilos ($445.92 million) in remodeling Liverpool right into a deep water container terminal that may obtain ships carrying as much as 19,000 TEU packing containers (20-foot equal models), CEO Mark Whitworth stated.

It expects to begin operations within the first quarter of subsequent 12 months.

“Our business case is predicated on taking existing market share,” Whitworth stated in an interview. “In a market that is stagnant, hopefully there will be an improvement in efficiency and costs (for shippers).”

Whitworth stated that round 90 % of container volumes comes into southern British ports akin to Felixstowe and Southampton whereas Liverpool accounts for under round 7 %. Peel Ports is aiming to extend that to twenty %.

Decades in the past, Liverpool was a significant centre for UK transport, however did not sustain with the push for scale by container transport traces.

“Ship sizes got bigger and physically we could not get them through the lock system,” Whitworth stated, including that Liverpool’s port enlargement would create “a northern gateway”.

Peel Ports is 50.1 % owned by Peel Group which is managed by British tycoon John Whittaker. The remaining 49.9 % stake is held by Deutsche Bank asset administration unit RREEF.

“Neither are short-term investors,” Whitworth stated.

Peel Ports, which handles 70 million tonnes of cargo yearly and has a turnover of round 800 million kilos a 12 months, owns a number of ports within the UK and Ireland. It can also be growing a separate logistics hub at Salford in neighbouring metropolis Manchester.

Liverpool will turn out to be a cargo switch level for Manchester and past utilizing smaller vessels by way of the 36-mile lengthy Manchester Ship Canal waterway, which Peel Ports additionally controls.

Peel Ports stated 50 corporations had already signed as much as the venture to maneuver their routes from southern ports to Liverpool, together with spirits big Diageo, low cost retailer chain B&M , automobile maker Jaguar Land Rover and clothes and homewares retailer Matalan.

Whitworth stated it could be “a negative step” if the UK left the European Union, when requested about considerations over a potential “Brexit” following a referendum promised by British Prime Minister David Cameron by the top of 2017.

“To some degree it would give us (Peel Ports) a level of complexity,” he stated. “I am a big fan of what we have today (being in the EU). It does need to be refined.” ($1 = 0.6728 kilos)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.