A PRIME cargo-handling deal at Southampton docks has been struck with a huge account switching between rival stevedoring companies, it emerged today.

Final details have yet to be thrashed out on the deal, which has been up and running since the beginning of this month and represents a major change on the waterfront.

Global freight shipping giant Wallenius Wilhelmsen (WW) has signed with ABP Connect Cargoflow - a services division of port owner ABP - for two years, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The dockside work had previously been carried out by Southampton Cargo Handling (SCH) - the UK's largest worker-owned stevedoring company.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen, which employs 100 people in Southampton, declined to reveal what the new deal was worth, or why it switched clients.

However, a spokesman confirmed a 'letter of appointment' had been signed with ABP Connect Cargo Flow.

Roger Webb, the managing director of SCH, in a four-word statement of thinly veiled relief, said: "We wish them well."

A contract between Wallenius Wilhelmsen and ABP Connect has yet to be signed, with negotiations over price, terms and conditions still to be thrashed out.

The spokesman for Wallenius Wilhelmsen, which has its administrative UK headquarters in the city, said: "This was a commercial decision, nothing more and nothing less."

The shipping line is a familiar sight at double tide Southampton Water, making 200 calls to the port every year.

Its gigantic roll-on roll-off vessels, with names like Tamerlane and Freedom, carry high-value cargoes like cars, yachts, planes, construction equipment and agricultural machinery from the four corners of the world.

An ABP spokesman confirmed that the stevedoring side of ABP Connect, which also specialises in vehicle processing, was now handling Wallenius Wilhelmsen's cargo.

SCH employs 150 people and is based at Phoenix House, Eastern Docks.

Although the Wallenius Wilhelmsen contract had constituted a big chunk of SCH's work, it was not believed to be especially lucrative.

SCH is understood to be concentrating on the more profitable arm of its business, cruise and passenger services, which is said to be going from strength to strength.

Southampton is the nation's cruise capital, with the cruise industry currently the biggest growth area in the UK travel sector.

This year alone more than 230 cruise liners and 700,000 passengers are scheduled to visit the port.

SCH has a virtual monopoly on handling all the associated services, along with car parking.

Another money-spinning arm of the business, STR, which involves training private businesses in cargo handling, is also said to be taking off.