London Gateway
DP World London Gateway is a port within the wider Port of London, on the north bank of the River Thames in Thurrock, Essex. Opened in November 2013, the site is a fully integrated logistics facility, consisting of a semi-automated deep-sea container terminal which is on the same site as a land bank for the development of warehousing, distribution facilities, and ancillary logistics services.
The facility is located 30 miles east of central London. The deep-water port is able to handle some of the largest container ships in the world. On a weekly basis, the port is now linked with 51 countries and more than 90 ports all over the world, including Asia, Australia, the US, South America, Africa, India, and Southern Europe. The largest ships anchor off Suffolk to await the pilot vessel from Harwich to escort them to London Gateway through the shifting sands off Essex.
Undertaken by DP World, the new facility significantly increased the capabilities and efficiencies of the Port of London to handle container shipping, to help meet the growing demand for container handling at Britain's ports. Construction began in February 2010, with the port and logistics park being completed in stages. Three berths were initially completed, with the potential for the development of three more; DP World in 2021 announced that it would build a fourth berth. The first phase of the port opened for business on 6 November 2013 with the docking of the 58,000-tonne MOL Caledon, loaded with fruit and wine from South Africa.
Development of the Logistics Park followed the initial stages of development of the port. UPS opened a new 32,000-square-metre package-sorting facility on the site in 2018 – one of the American firm's largest-ever infrastructure investments outside of the US. Since March 2017, German grocery retailer Lidl has been operating out of the DP World London Gateway Logistics Centre, the first warehouse to be developed on the site.
Annual capacity of the port is 3.5 million containers ; 2021 throughput was 1.8 million TEU, and continues to increase.
The port
Technology and equipment
DP World London Gateway Port is a semi-automated facility. It uses robotic, automated stacking cranes to assist with managing containers as they are moved from ship-to-shore cranes and onto and off trucks and trains.Sixteen quay cranes, among the largest in the world and built by ZPMC, are installed along 2000m of developed quayside that has a water depth of 17m alongside. This enables the port to efficiently handle the world's largest container ships, which are now up to 400m long, 60m wide and able to carry up to 24,000 TEUs. In the last three years, DP World London Gateway has handled dozens of these "Ultra-Large" container ships.
The port's quay cranes – which are manual but can be driven remotely from the port's control room – have multi-lift capability, meaning they are able to lift up to four TEUs in one go. The cranes are able to lift cargo weighing up to 80 tonnes and sit on 49m-deep quay walls.
DP World London Gateway Port currently comprises three deep-water berths, with the ability to expand to six.
The facility uses 78 automated stacking cranes, 39 dedicated to land-side operations and 39 dedicated to ship-side operations. These cranes were also built by ZPMC, with software provided by Kalmar and Cargotec. There are 234 bays available at any one time for hauliers collecting or dropping off containers.
The port also uses straddle carriers, which move containers between the automated container stacking area and the quay cranes. Terminal tractors and trans lifter trailers – which move cassettes, onto which containers are loaded – are used on the port's land side to move containers between the automated stacking area and the port's rail terminal and inspection facilities.
An automated gate enables hauliers to access the site by booking a slot through the port's vehicle booking system. The vehicle booking system is provided by Community Network Services. This electronic data interchange system provides the flow of import and export information between shipping lines, ports, freight forwarders, customs and other inspection agencies, hauliers and rail operators.
Access by road
Road distribution is via the A13 to Junction 30 of the M25 motorway or via the A13 to the A130 and A12. As part of construction of the port, DP World London Gateway has invested significantly into improving road access to the facility. It increased capacity at the A13/Manorway junction, the main interchange for the port and the A13, by adding additional lanes. It also moved Sorrells roundabout south east by 50m so capacity and access at the roundabout could be increased. DP World London Gateway has also contributed funding to the widening of the A13, a two-year project which started in 2017. As of March 2022 this project is not yet completed.There is an employee bus service which runs from Chafford Hundred, Grays and Stanford-le-Hope.
Reliability and safety
The technology employed at DP World London Gateway makes the terminal safer than traditional ports. The automated stacking area means that personnel or hauliers do not have to closely interact with stacks of containers, as this is managed by robotic cranes. This means that adverse weather has only forced the port to close for five hours in three-and-a-half years– other UK deep-sea port have closed for longer periods due to weather.Shipping services
DP World London Gateway continues to expand its customer base. It now offers UK exporters and importers the ability to ship through DP World London Gateway to and from 51 countries and more than 91 ports all over the world. THE Alliance – a container shipping consortium made up of Hapag Lloyd, NYK Line, K-Line, Mitsui-Osk Line and Yang Ming – offers services to and from Asia, including China, Vietnam and Thailand. A number of weekly services are available to and from both the east coast and west coast of South America, the Caribbean, United States, Australia, South Africa, Russia and the Mediterranean.The future
Full development of the port – berths four, five and six – will be completed in line with market demand. With six deep-sea berths, 2700 m of linear quayside and 24 quay cranes, the port will have an annual capacity of 3.5 million TEU. It is estimated that when the port is fully operational it will save 65 million HGV-miles and take 2,000 trucks off the road per day, with economic and environmental advantages.London Gateway expressed interest in becoming a freeport after the exit of the UK from the EU.
Rail terminal
The rail terminal at DP World London Gateway is one of the longest in the UK. It is located inside the port's ISPS fence.Rail access to the terminal is via connection to the Tilbury Loop of the London, Tilbury and Southend line. On site of double track access accommodates trains of up to 35 wagons long and Freightliner are running intermodal trains on a daily basis via and to the West Coast Main Line. Network Rail has cleared all trains on this route to rail loading gauge W10, the same as the connecting rail access route to the Channel Tunnel, allowing high containers to be transported. The East Coast Main Line connection to serve and carries a smaller W8 loading gauge clearance, requiring the use of specially designed low-liner wagons to accommodate the taller containers.
The rail terminal, operated by GB Railfreight, is served by three rail-mounted gantry cranes which move containers between ground-based cassettes and wagons.
The first rail freight service from the UK to China departed from the DP World London Gateway terminal on 10 April 2017. The three-week-long journey took the train and its cargo through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, ending in Yiwu in China's eastern Zhejiang province.
DP World London Gateway has planning consent to develop a second rail terminal to the north-west of Berth Seven.