Pride cometh before…

London Gateway on a better day.

Storm Imogen puts London Gateway to the test, and wins

IT SEEMS like only days ago — last Thursday, to be precise — that DP World was singing the praises of its all-weather facility at London Gateway.

London Gateway has been successful in taking vessel calls from rival Felixstowe over the past few months as operations at its northern neighbour were disrupted by storms Eva, Frank and Gertrude. The UK’s newest deepwater port has automated stacking cranes that are able to withstand wind speeds of up to gale force conditions.

“We don’t have any issue like other ports from the impact of high winds, because our landside is fully automated, which allows trucks to come in every day rather than being prevented from entering the port when the weather takes a turn for the worse,” a DP World spokesman told Lloyd’s List last week.

Ah, yes, but that was before Storm Imogen came along. The wind and rain battering the southern UK as Last Word types has unfortunately bested even London Gateway.

A note to customers sent out by DP World this morning says it all. “Please note that the weather forecast received for London Gateway Port today, Monday 8 February, are wind speeds exceeding 53 miles per hour. This exceeds the limit on which our automatic static cranes can safely operate, therefore, with the safety of drivers and London Gateway personnel in mind, London Gateway is suspending all VBS bookings from 1100-2000.”

Now we’ll overlook, for now, the less than nautical use of miles per hour instead of knots to measure wind speed, but it seems that while the cranes may be able to work up to gale force, a strong gale is just too much for even London Gateway.