Liverpool2 will ‘create 5,000 jobs’
LIVERPOOL’s new deep water port should create 5,000 jobs in the North West, according to Peel Ports which is developing the £300m facility.
It said two-thirds of the direct jobs are expected to be taken by people living within a 10-mile radius of the Port of Liverpool.
Some 500 will be at the port itself and the rest will be in the associated logistics industry, said Peel.
New jobs will include full and part-time opportunities for stevedores, pilots, launch crew, line handlers and haulage administrators. There will also be work in management, accounts and commercial services.
David Huck, port director at Peel Ports, said: “Employment in the maritime sector is expected to double over the next 20 years and Peel Ports is determined to play a pivotal role both in creating those jobs and ensuring the workforce has the skills we need to be successful. The whole region stands to benefit enormously from growth and investment in maritime and related sectors.”
The Liverpool2 port, north of the city centre at Seaforth, will help remodel Liverpool as the main multimodal freight and logistics hub for the north of England and Scotland. The ambition is to rival leading international ports in New York, Dubai and Singapore.
The city argues that the growth of ports such as Southampton and Felixstowe has distorted patterns of trade and taken freight from the north. Its Superport project – a name which encompasses the port and all the other logistics assets in the city region – will seek to harness this trade and capitalise on changes to international shipping prompted by the expansion of the Panama Canal. The local enterprise partnership (LEP) is talking about a £1.8bn investment in these assets over the next 10 years, creating 20,000 jobs.
The widening of the Panama canal will enable it to handle vessels carrying 13,000 20 ft containers, the same as Liverpool2, up from 5,000 at present. It means more ships will sail through from Asia to the eastern coast of the US which is already a major supplier of container traffic to Liverpool, with some 45% of all containers from US and Canada passing through the city.
