Southampton is the top international shipping gateway thanks to new links with China. KEITH HAMILTON reports...

Southampton is now the country's number one international gateway for container services linking the vast industrial powerhouse of China with the UK.

The city has strengthened its position as one of Europe's major hubs for Far East trade with the start of two new routes focusing on north China.

Both services will call at Southampton's sister city of Qingdao which signed an official accord with the city council and the Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce in 1998.

Before this new business Southampton Container Terminals already handled more than half of all the nation's container traffic with the Far East but now these extras services confirms the port's premier position in this vital sector.

These are hectic times for SCT as the volume generated by these new services will contribute towards a continued increase in container throughput in 2001.

This highly significant trade boost follows hard on the heels of the operator breaking through the one million container unit milestone last year.

SCT has catered for the increasing throughputs with investment in new straddle carriers, two ship-to-shore cranes, additional stacking area and recruitment to match the expanding operation.

Shipping line CMA CGM, in conjunction with their partners National Shipping Corporation of Saudi Arabia, Norasia Line, China Shipping Group, Contship and K Line operate the service known as the North China Express (NCX), one of two sailings per week to the Far East and China. SCT has now been added to the port rotation after the NCX previously called at just mainland European ports.

The New World Alliance (TNWA) partners, American President Lines, Mitsui OSK and Hyundai Merchant Marine, operate a new service from Europe to the Far East, known as the New European Express (NEX).

It means that TNWA now offers four sailings a week out of Southampton, with the NEX following only one year after the transfer of their Asia Express Service to Southampton.

Managing Director Jerry Rickcord said: "We are delighted that the two consortia are increasing their business through SCT with more ship calls and bigger cargo volumes.

"This latest expansion will further consolidate our position as the UK's leading port for Far East traffic.''

The CMA CGM North China service was inaugurated by the vessel Ville DeVirgo, starting a new route via Southampton which includes calls at Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Jeddah, Port Kelang, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Qingdao, Dalian, Kwangyang, Busan, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Port Kelang, Damietta and Malta.

The APL France marked the first call of TNWA's NEX service, one of eight ships which will operate the route on a port rotation of Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chiwan, Singapore, Aden, Hamburg and Southampton.

Shipping giant P&O, joint operators of SCT, has also invested in a large container terminal in Qingdao.

Backing for the Southampton/Qingdao accord has come from chairman of P&O, Lord Sterling who said that the special relationship between the two cities has helped his company do business in China.