Port bosses expecting business to pick up (From Daily Echo)

Bosses at Southampton Docks believe worst of recession is over

10:57am Friday 29th May 2009 in Financial Crisis By Gareth Lewis, Business Editor

Port of Southampton

PORT bosses are hopeful they have endured the worst of the recession and are anticipating an upturn in their hard hit business.

However, they fear the glory days of the car-handling trade, one of the cornerstones of Southampton docks, may be over forever.

Reversing a recent tide of bad news from the waterfront, port director Doug Morrison said the cruise business was actually on course to grow slightly, while he was hopeful of an upturn in both containers and cars before the end of the year.

Years of growth at Southampton were brought to an abrupt halt by the financial crisis and the subsequent international economic slowdown, with the port’s key container trade with Asia slumping by more than ten per cent and the vehicle import export business down by as much as 50 per cent.

As a result more than 200 jobs were shed from across the docks and the container port, including deputy port director captain Stephen Young. Meanwhile Maersk, the world’s biggest container shipping line switched its giant ships away from the port to rival Felixstowe.

But, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo, Mr Morrison held out hope for the workers and the 12,000 people in Hampshire who rely on the docks for a living that the worst may now be behind them.

“There is no science behind it but I am hopeful that we will start to see an improvement in our fortunes.

There’s a feeling that we may have turned a corner.”

He said the downturn at the container port was much greater than that seen on the high street, leading them to believe shops had been running down their stocks and could soon need to import more through Southampton to make up the shortfall.

Government measures such as the car scrappage scheme, which rewards people for switching old cars for new, may also help in time, although the benefits have yet to be felt.

At the same time they are still coming to terms with the loss of trade from wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, which has announced plans to close its Isle of Wight and Southampton plant.

“It is bad news about Vestas and that is a blow for us. If there was a business you asked me to name had a good future, I would have said renewable energy and so that is a disappointment for us,” said Mr Morrison.

“But, the cruise business seems to be resilient. You can never say anything is recession proof but that’s as close as you can be.We are just going to fall short of one million passengers.”