Port Focus: London Tilbury
When selecting a port there are various factors that must be considered, including the proximity of the location to the company's suppliers, the proximity of the location to the company's buyers / customers, transport links, shipping routes, port capacity and local warehousing. Our 'Port Focus' series offers a high-level overview of the UK ports that Alinea Customs' service, and local insight for clients.
London Tilbury port is the largest port of the Thames, located on the north bank of the River Thames, 22 miles east of central London.
It handles annual throughput of 16 million tonnes per annum, imported and exported by short and deep-sea vessels. London Tilbury provides operational support for different cargoes, supporting ro-ro, container, forest products, grain and bulks as well as cruises and property solutions, and is the location of London Container Terminal. Containers entering Tilbury can be tracked using the following link: https://groupcont.forthports.co.uk/containerEnquiry/
Whilst the port has breakbulk facilities, any bulk shipments should be planned in advance and confirmed with the port management crew. The port is extremely busy and dwell time should be kept to a minimum, warehousing capacity should also be confirmed in advance for any breakbulk storage requests. 2 Harbour Mobile Cranes are capable of lifting up to 140 tonnes 1 x 65 tonne harbour mobile crane, handling 4,000 tonnes of project cargo per annum. Tilbury2 is an adjacent port opened in February 2019.
It is built on a 152-acre site which was formerly Tilbury Power Station, and comprises of:
• Roll on/roll off ferry terminal for importing and exporting containers and trailers
• Construction Materials and Aggregate Terminal (CMAT) for importing, processing, manufacturing and distributing construction materials
• New nationally strategic rail and road connection into the site
Forth Ports, who manage Tilbury port also manage the Tilbury Freeport site, offering access on application to lease a freeport customs site, a freeport tax-site, or a combination of both, offering scope for businesses who are seeking to extend their manufacturing facilities, process and re-export goods or hold goods under customs suspension facilities on a long-term basis.
Tilbury is serviced by 3 railheads onsite which directly link to the UK mainline railway, and offers barging services into Central London.
The point of contacts at London Tilbury are Jamie Smith, Business Manager Jamie.smith@potll.com T: 01375 852487 | M: 07545 062121 or Stuart Holmes, Business Development Manager, stuart.holmes@forthports.co.uk, T: 01375 854700 | M: +44 (0) 7870 381 732 | https://forthports.co.uk
Alinea Customs provide customs clearance at London Tilbury and London Container Terminal (LCT) and consultancy services concerning freeports and other customs and border-related areas. Contact: customs@alineacustoms.com.