Port Of Felixstowe, United Kingdom

Felixstowe Port is the United Kingdom's busiest container port. Located in the Suffolk Coastal district on England's eastern shores, Felixstowe Port lies on the northeastern side of the River Orwell estuary across from Harwich Harbor. Less than 100 kilometers northeast of London, Felixstowe Port is England's closest port to Rotterdam and the Netherlands' Europort. It is also a yachting harbor and seaside resort. In 2001, over 29 thousand people called Felixstowe Port home.

Created by an Act of Parliament, the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company owns and operates Felixstowe Port. However, the Dock and Railway Company is now owned by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group, a subsidiary of the multi-national Hutchison Whampoa Limited, the world's leading port investor, developer, and operator. Has its own police force, fire department, and ambulance service.

The main navigation channel to Felixstowe Port is dredged to 14.5 meters, and it has a maximum depth along the quay of 15 meters. Felixstowe Port can accommodate the world's latest deep-draft post-Panamax container vessels. It offers more than 2.3 kilometers of continuous quay and 25 ship-to-shore gantry cranes.

Felixstowe Port handles some 35% of the United Kingdom's container traffic. In 2008, it was ranked as Europe's sixth busiest container port, and as the 28th busiest in the world. In 2007, Felixstowe Port handled a total of 3.3 million TEUs of containerized cargo.

Felixstowe Port includes two major container terminals, Trinity and Landguard, and a roll-on/roll-off terminal. The Trinity Container Terminal is the biggest container-handling facility in the UK. Each terminal has its own railway terminal with direct connections to the single-track line to Ipswich which has recently been upgraded to handle larger containers. The port's road connections to the Midlands and to London are quite congested, and many containers are now distributed inland by rail.

Felixstowe Port is now constructing the Felixstowe Focus South, the United Kingdom's first new deep-water container port. When the first phase of the new port comes on line in 2010, it will employ 600 people directly and create an additional 860 jobs in related industries. The second phase is scheduled to be completed by 2014.
When finished, Felixstowe Focus South will increase total quay length in Felixstowe Port by almost 900 meters, giving a total quay of over 1.2 thousand meter. Together with Felixstowe Port's Trinity Terminal, the port will offer more than four kilometers of deep-water container facilities.

By the time the project is completed, Felixstowe Port will have 750 meters of additional sea wall, contain 1285 meters of quay with alongside depth of 16 meters to accommodate the latest container vessels. Its approach channel will be 14.5 meters deep. Felixstowe Port will be equipped with 13 ship-to-shore gantry cranes and 50 RTGs. It will include storage yard capacity for 52.5 thousand TEUs at the New North Rail Terminal near Trinity Terminal.