Peel Ports appoints new Chief Executive

Peel Ports’ new Chief Executive Stephen Baxter, has taken the reins of the UK’s second largest ports group.  Mr Baxter succeeds Tom Allison, who has become Chairman of the Group.

Mr Baxter, the former Chief Operations Officer for BAA airports, has taken up his position at Peel Ports’ Liverpool head office.

The Peel Ports Group comprises Clydeport in Scotland, Heysham, Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal in the North West of England and Medway Ports in the South East, plus major container terminals in Dublin, Belfast and Cardiff.

In other news

A new US$12 million, 27,500 sq. m. fresh produce terminal and cool store, operated by Go-Associates, is to be built in the Port of Liverpool for imported fruit and vegetables. The facility - which is close to half the UK’s population - will help to cut longer truck movements to the UK’s southern ports which will help reduce carbon emissions on Britain’s roads.

Liverpool Produce Terminal (LPT), located alongside the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and the site of the port’s planned ?100+ million Post Panamax River Container Terminal, will provide a cost effective all-water alternative to the 300 trucks arriving daily in Britain with fruit from Spain.

The quayside facility will be equipped with four individually controlled chambers with a temperature range of -5°C to +14°C and can accommodate produce four pallets high. The largest reefer vessels can be accommodated alongside the cool store which can discharge a 4,000 pallet ship in 24 hours.

In another development

Plans have been submitted for Phase 2 of a multi-modal logistics hub of nearly one million square feet to meet the demands of the Port of Liverpool’s growing trade of almost 34 million tonnes from over 100 countries. 

The second stage of development of Liverpool Intermodal Freeport Terminal (LIFT) will provide more than 400,000 sq ft of modern warehousing – expanding the Port’s logistics capacity to four million square feet. This follows the success of the first phase in which all 600,000 sq ft is fully let.