Port of Felixstowe | |
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Location | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Location | Felixstowe |
Coordinates | 51°57′18″N 1°18′36″E / 51.955°N 1.310°E |
Details | |
Opened | 1875 |
Operated by | Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company |
Owned by | Hutchison Port Holdings |
Type of harbour | Container port |
Size | 3,383 ha (8,360 acres) |
No. of berths | 10 (9 Active) |
Employees | 3,500 approx. (2017) |
Chief Executive Officer | Clemence Cheng |
Statistics | |
Vessel arrivals | 3,000 sea |
Website www |
The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's largest container port,[1] dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade.[2][3] In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a handled traffic of 3.85 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).[4] In 2019 it was ranked the UK's 7th busiest port.[5]
The port is operated by the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, which was set up under an Act of Parliament, the Felixstowe Railway and Pier Act 1875, and so is one of the few limited companies in the UK that do not have the word "Limited" in their name.[6] Much of the land on which it sits is owned by Trinity College, Cambridge, which in the 1930s bought some land near Felixstowe which included a dock that was too small to be included in the National Dock Labour Scheme. In 1967, it set up Britain's first container terminal for £3.5m in a deal with Sea-Land Service.[7] Because container shipping is much more economically efficient in bulk, this early start led to it becoming the UK's largest container port, despite its previous insignificance to the shipping market.
Felixstowe is owned by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group and has always been privately owned. In 1951, Gordon Parker, an agricultural merchant, bought the Felixstowe Dock & Railway Company, which at the time was handling only grain and coal.[citation needed] In 1976, Felixstowe was bought by European Ferries. In June 1991, P&O sold Felixstowe to Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong for £90m. In June 1994, Hutchison Whampoa's Hutchison International Port Holdings bought out Orient Overseas International's 25% stake in Felixstowe for £50m.[citation needed] On 21 August 2022, the first strike in thirty years occurred when about 1,900 Unite members walked out in a dispute over pay.[8]
The port has its own Port of Felixstowe Police, fire, and ambulance services.