She's now alongside, with unloading of 2 cranes due to start Thursday. Just found a really interesting article, with CEO Simon Moore claiming to have 1,000,000 TEU committed to Gateway on opening . . that's a serious lump of trade for a 1 berth for six months, 2 berths for 6 months port, compared to Felixstowe's 3.4 million TEU. Some imformed opinion suggests that some initial traffic might also come from Southampton's 1.4 million, where their additional berth will also come into use this year.
Some pundits are also saying that a lot of shipping line decisions might come down to money, with flat demand meaning that there is no new traffic to take up new berths . . Lines will have their pick of facilities in the next year or two, and as 70% of the world's deep sea business is split between only four main players now: Maersk Line; MSC and CMA CGM (two lines); G6 Alliance (six lines); CKYH (four lines), the fight to win and/or retain traffic will be potentially vicious behind the scenes . .
Here's the link:
http://www.portfinanceinternational.com/features/item/790-1m-teus-committed-to-london-gateway,-says-ceo
