Until now the Liverpool to Manchester service has carried only an increasing level of containers, but this week's transporting of a giant chemicals tank to the Ineos facility at Runcorn saw the start of non-containerised traffic, Port of Liverpool & the Machester Ship Canal reported.
The 30 metre high 20 tonne tank arrived at the Port of Liverpool from Holland on the ACL vessel Atlantic Concert on Monday, and made the onward journey on the Ship Canal to Runcorn by barge on Tuesday.
The journey from Liverpool to Runcorn took just over three hours.
Stephen Carr, Peel Ports Mersey's head of business development for the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal, said: "This is the latest development in our objective to increase usage of the Ship Canal as a logistics hub that drives down cost and CO2 emissions.
"The Port of Liverpool has seen a significant increase in container volumes over the last few months, much of which has continued the journey via our barge service to end-users – driven by supply chains looking for a lower cost solution to serve Northern and Central Britain.
"Today's delivery of this project cargo from the Port of Liverpool to Runcorn is a departure in that is the first non-container cargo to use our barge service, and we are keen to expand and further develop that side of the business.
"This further increase in the use of the Ship Canal demonstrates the desire of many companies to use water to get their product as close to their customer as possible."
Andrew Wormald, senior sales & operations manager at Abnormal Load Services Ltd, Peel Ports' customer on this project, said: "The sheer size of this cargo made the use of road transport problematic, and the use of Peel's barge service was the perfect solution. It also saved us on costs and carbon emissions for this leg of the journey from Holland."
About Port and Ship Canal together
The Ship Canal was built by the merchants of Manchester to establish their own direct route to the open sea and oceans of the world, rather than using the Port of Liverpool.
Today, the two are owned for the first time by the same organisation, the Peel Ports Group. The Port at the mouth of the Mersey and the "big ship" waterway running from the river to the heart of Manchester and the North West Region, are forging a new and exciting synergy that benefits the maritime industry, the makers and movers of imports and exports and the immediate and wider environment.
Together, the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal offer a comprehensive range of port facilities, handling more than 40 million tonnes of cargo and 15,000 ship movements a year – making the River Mersey Britain's third busiest estuary.
The Port and Canal form the "green" gateway to an economy of more than 120,000 industrial and commercial enterprises and a population equal to that of greater London.
Initiatives have been taken to combine the diversity of the deepsea Port of Liverpool with the bespoke and general port facilities of the Manchester Ship Canal, creating a unique all-water route for international trade. The volumes of cargo handled by both are growing as opportunities are taken to maximise their individual and combined merits.
Containers and bulk cargoes are being transhipped from Liverpool up the Canal – pioneering a strategy to increase efficiency, reduce cost and safeguard the environment by the waterborne movement of more and more international trade.
Peel Ports' planned investment amounting to more than £500 million, will further enhance the potential of the Port and Canal as hubs for international trade and a unique environment friendly waterborne alternative to inland road haulage.
About the Liverpool-Manchester barge service
The barge service operates between Liverpool and Manchester, a "Green Highway" alternative to using the motorway network which will reduce traffic congestion on the M62.
Each journey equates to a saving of 180kgs of CO2 emissions, creating the potential to save an additional 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and further demonstrates Peel Ports' position as a deep sea hub port with genuine environmental credentials.
The growth in container volumes being handled on the Ship Canal comes from a variety of sources including: shipping lines such as Hapag Lloyd and CMA taking advantage of utilising the barge to save on road miles and reduce CO2 emissions; imports from Ireland being barged to Ellesmere Port for Quality Freight; and, continued usage from Kingsland Wine and Media City, the latter relating to stone being delivered on site for the BBC development at Media City.
More than 300,000 containers per annum still travel between Southern ports and the North West of England, a number that increases to over a million road journeys per annum when the area is expanded to include the rest of Northern Britain and Ireland. From both cost and environmental angles, these numbers are simply not sustainable and cannot continue.
The continued growth of the barge service is such a positive example of the capability and potential of the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal and its very important benefits to businesses and the environment.
The 30 metre high 20 tonne tank arrived at the Port of Liverpool from Holland on the ACL vessel Atlantic Concert on Monday, and made the onward journey on the Ship Canal to Runcorn by barge on Tuesday.
The journey from Liverpool to Runcorn took just over three hours.
Stephen Carr, Peel Ports Mersey's head of business development for the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal, said: "This is the latest development in our objective to increase usage of the Ship Canal as a logistics hub that drives down cost and CO2 emissions.
"The Port of Liverpool has seen a significant increase in container volumes over the last few months, much of which has continued the journey via our barge service to end-users – driven by supply chains looking for a lower cost solution to serve Northern and Central Britain.
"Today's delivery of this project cargo from the Port of Liverpool to Runcorn is a departure in that is the first non-container cargo to use our barge service, and we are keen to expand and further develop that side of the business.
"This further increase in the use of the Ship Canal demonstrates the desire of many companies to use water to get their product as close to their customer as possible."
Andrew Wormald, senior sales & operations manager at Abnormal Load Services Ltd, Peel Ports' customer on this project, said: "The sheer size of this cargo made the use of road transport problematic, and the use of Peel's barge service was the perfect solution. It also saved us on costs and carbon emissions for this leg of the journey from Holland."
About Port and Ship Canal together
The Ship Canal was built by the merchants of Manchester to establish their own direct route to the open sea and oceans of the world, rather than using the Port of Liverpool.
Today, the two are owned for the first time by the same organisation, the Peel Ports Group. The Port at the mouth of the Mersey and the "big ship" waterway running from the river to the heart of Manchester and the North West Region, are forging a new and exciting synergy that benefits the maritime industry, the makers and movers of imports and exports and the immediate and wider environment.
Together, the Port of Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal offer a comprehensive range of port facilities, handling more than 40 million tonnes of cargo and 15,000 ship movements a year – making the River Mersey Britain's third busiest estuary.
The Port and Canal form the "green" gateway to an economy of more than 120,000 industrial and commercial enterprises and a population equal to that of greater London.
Initiatives have been taken to combine the diversity of the deepsea Port of Liverpool with the bespoke and general port facilities of the Manchester Ship Canal, creating a unique all-water route for international trade. The volumes of cargo handled by both are growing as opportunities are taken to maximise their individual and combined merits.
Containers and bulk cargoes are being transhipped from Liverpool up the Canal – pioneering a strategy to increase efficiency, reduce cost and safeguard the environment by the waterborne movement of more and more international trade.
Peel Ports' planned investment amounting to more than £500 million, will further enhance the potential of the Port and Canal as hubs for international trade and a unique environment friendly waterborne alternative to inland road haulage.
About the Liverpool-Manchester barge service
The barge service operates between Liverpool and Manchester, a "Green Highway" alternative to using the motorway network which will reduce traffic congestion on the M62.
Each journey equates to a saving of 180kgs of CO2 emissions, creating the potential to save an additional 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum and further demonstrates Peel Ports' position as a deep sea hub port with genuine environmental credentials.
The growth in container volumes being handled on the Ship Canal comes from a variety of sources including: shipping lines such as Hapag Lloyd and CMA taking advantage of utilising the barge to save on road miles and reduce CO2 emissions; imports from Ireland being barged to Ellesmere Port for Quality Freight; and, continued usage from Kingsland Wine and Media City, the latter relating to stone being delivered on site for the BBC development at Media City.
More than 300,000 containers per annum still travel between Southern ports and the North West of England, a number that increases to over a million road journeys per annum when the area is expanded to include the rest of Northern Britain and Ireland. From both cost and environmental angles, these numbers are simply not sustainable and cannot continue.
The continued growth of the barge service is such a positive example of the capability and potential of the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal and its very important benefits to businesses and the environment.