Preparations by the Isle of Man Packet Company reports 3FM are to see the ferry operator start trials and safety training at their new terminal in Liverpool.

The infrastructure built by a UK arm of the Irish contractor, John Sisk & Co as Afloat previously reported is located at Princes Half Tide Dock. The Department of Infrastructure is also working to ensure the berth will be ready for sea-trials to take place in early March.

This is to see the Steam Packet’s fast-craft, Manannan become the first vessel to berth at the new link-span which is less than a 1 km downriver of The Pier Head, the existing ferry terminal on Merseyside.

As long as such works can be put in place, the company expects the new terminal will be enabled to undertake Manannan’s mooring trials and familiarisation to be concluded towards the end of March.

According to the Steam Packet, the main priority is for Manannan to be in operation from Liverpool also at the end of the same month on the route to Douglas. Should it arise, a contingency plan will be put into effect for its first sailing to take place using the Pier Head terminal.

A fleetmate, flagship Manxman is also to make a debut at the new ferry facility for berthing trials in April, providing that everything goes according to plan. The flagship’s inaugural commercial call, however will be later in the year, when the terminal is scheduled for such sailings in November.

More here on the new Irish Sea terminal.

The UK's second largest ports operator, Peel Ports Group is investing £28 million in a new facility at the Port of Liverpool, its biggest single investment in warehousing this year.

Construction of the 240,000 square foot warehouse at the port operator’s Alexandra Dock is to begin in the coming days.

The new facility, referred to as Alexandra Dock Multi-User Warehouse (MUW), will be the length of up to five football pitches (400 metres) and used for the handling and storage of cargo at the port.

It will be able to store a variety of commodities, both unitised and non-unitised requiring indoor storage.

The facility will also have 300 metres of dedicated quayside and state-of-the-art cranes to optimise vessel discharge as part of the new development.

David Huck, Chief Operating Officer at Peel Ports Group, said: “We’re very pleased to be announcing the construction for this major purpose-built space at the Port of Liverpool.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in demand for warehousing, and this huge new facility provides an opportunity for new customers looking for capacity to grow their business, as well as allowing existing customers the chance to expand their operational capacity at the port.

“This also represents a very important milestone for Peel Ports Group, enhancing both our warehousing and distribution offerings while enabling more sustainable port-centric solutions.

“We’ve long argued the benefits of the Port of Liverpool’s central location, and this new facility will also provide real cost, carbon and congestion supply chain benefits to the market.”

The new state-of-the-art, dynamic storage facility has been maximised for storage volumes, discharge performance and fast HGV turnaround times.

The project is expected to be completed in April 2024 and the work will be carried out by leading construction company Glencar.

Commenting on the project, Peter Goodman, Managing Director – Midlands & North, said: “Working with some of the UK’s leading asset managers, developers and occupiers, Glencar has developed a market leading reputation in the delivery of industrial and logistics facilities.

“We understand the commercial imperative to produce sustainable and high-quality structures, often at speed, creating lasting value for asset owners and are delighted to be working for leading UK Port Operator Peel Ports to construct this multi-user warehouse development.

“Ports serve as a critical part of the UK Supply Chain and multi-users facilities of this type contribute towards the continuation of the import and export of vital goods. We look forward to working with the full project team progressing the project to a successful end product.”

Shipping company WEC Lines has expanded its existing service into the Port of Liverpool with a new series of weekly calls to the UK port from northern Spain, Portugal, north Africa and the Canary Islands.

The Dutch (Rotterdam based) company is operating weekly services in addition to existing Spanish and Portuguese routes since 2019 to the Merseyside port that is part of the Peel Ports Group.

The new direct weekly services from Bilbao, Vigo and Gijon in Spain, Casablanca in Morocco, Setubal and Leixoes in Portugal and Santa Cruz and Las Palmas in the Canaries commenced this month.

The services will import a range of southern European and north African products.

Roger Megann, Managing Director from WEC Lines said: “This is a significant upgrade and expansion of our service, offering our customers weekly reliability and new direct connections to and from Portugal, Spain, Canaries and north Africa to Liverpool.

“WEC Lines is committed to providing excellence in its products and customer service. Our partnership with Port of Liverpool is a key element of this development.”

David Huck, Chief Operating Officer at Peel Ports said: “We are delighted to welcome WEC Lines’ significant expansion of services into the Port of Liverpool.

“This multi-continental weekly service is a further vote of confidence in the port and the trans-shipment opportunities of these routes further expand Liverpool’s global network and reach.

“The Port of Liverpool’s unrivalled location provides significant advantages as a more efficient and closer-to-end destination option, which reduces the road miles and congestion seen at other UK ports.”

One of the UK's biggest ports, the Port of Liverpool is where dock workers have announced they have called off a planned strike after reaching a deal on pay.

Dockers numbering almost 600 and who are members of the union Unite at the Port of Liverpool had taken part in previous strikes. Further action was scheduled to take place on 14 November after the union said pay talks had ended in "chaos".

The port's operator, Peel Ports Group said an agreement had been reached and would be put to union members in a vote that is to take place later in the week.

Details of the dockers deal have not been released.

BBC News has more on the Merseyside port where strike action had only affected container operations.

At one of the UK’s largest container ports, dock workers in their hundreds are beginning a fresh two-week strike in a dispute over pay, which could further disrupt the country’s supply chains.

The union Unite which nearly has 600 members at the Peel Ports owned Port of Liverpool, will strike again from Monday (24 October), after the union said talks designed to resolve the dispute ended “in chaos”.

The union had accused the board of operator Peel Ports of intervening to stop a deal, which it said had been agreed in principle, from going ahead.

According to Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the Unite team had “negotiated in good faith with Peel Ports”. “But the talks ended in farce, with the deal agreed between Unite and senior management being pulled by the board,” she said. “Strike action by our members and with the full support of Unite will go ahead.”

For more on this latest strike, The Guardian reports.

Halloween decorations, DIY materials and heavy machinery deliveries bound for Ireland could face delays as a two-week dockers’ strike at the port of Liverpool gets underway.

At least 560 workers were due to walk out of the port last night in a dispute over pay, according to the Unite trade union, just hours after Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and the end of a 10-day national mourning period.

The strike will affect the Port of Liverpool’s container division until October 3, although other operations – cruises, trailer traffic and bulk cargo – will be unaffected, the port said in a statement.

Although Liverpool does not handle time-sensitive food or other perishable goods bound for Ireland, it is a hub for goods coming in via container ship from Asia and the United States including goods destined for Irish retailers.

“Any disruption in England has a knock-on impact for Ireland,” said Aidan Flynn, chief executive of the Freight Transport Association of Ireland. “It’s like a concertina effect. Things get squeezed.” 

Independent.ie has more here on the strike on Merseyside. 

A new bridge will be part-funded by Liverpool City Council which will spend £200,000 on the project to connect Princes Dock to the new Isle of Man ferry terminal.

The Isle of Man Government says this will provide a more direct link to the city centre for ferry foot passengers than following a route along roads.

Council documents show the bridge will cost a total of £298,138.52.

Developer Liverpool Waters says the bridge will be ready for the opening of the new ferry terminal expected in June 2023.

As Manx Radio reports the development is expected to be ready when the terminal opens.

The Isle of Man Minister for Infrastructure doesn't think the ferry terminal project will cost more than already requested.

The minister doesn't believe work to the Liverpool Ferry Terminal project will cost more than has already been requested by his predecessor.

The project is expected to cost more than double what was initially requested of Tynwald.

Chris Thomas insists the June 2023 deadline is still realistic and says whilst not everything was straight forward with this project - he believes it's not right to penalise other off-Island projects in future.

ManxRadio reports including a link to the podcast with the Minister spreaking on the terminal that is to serve the route to Douglas Harbour.

Chaos outside Paris’ Stade de France at the Champions League final is leading this morning’s headlines — and among the fans in the city were a group of resourceful Liverpool supporters who travelled part of the way by speedboat.

As the Liverpool ECHO reports, Paddy O’Toole said friends’ original travel plans appeared to have been scuppered by the cancellation of their EasyJet flight to Paris for the crunch football final.

After dashing from Liverpool to London, the group managed to get on a flight from Heathrow to Jersey in the Channel Islands, where Paddy lives, but that still left them hundreds more kilometres short of the French capital.

Boss way to get to Paris @LFC pic.twitter.com/1YKGFRelDx

— Paddy OToole (@morefootie) May 27, 2022

Enter Paddy’s friend Garry Brennan, whose local business has a fleet of motor vessels including the 12-person RIB that carried the intrepid group to the French mainland on Friday (27 May) in plenty of time to join thousands of other Liverpool away fans.

The Liverpool ECHO has more on the story HERE.

UK ports group, Peel Ports has partnered with social enterprise Innovate Her to encourage diversity and inclusion across the organisation and promote STEM subjects to hundreds of female students across Liverpool.

The national port operator has pledged its support to the organisation after recognising that the maritime sector must become more inclusive and support greater gender diversity.

The latest collaboration is among several initiatives from Peel Ports to encourage more women into the business.

Innovate Her is a values-led social enterprise based in the North West, that aims to equip more women with the skills and confidence to pursue STEM-related careers. It specialises in delivering education and coaching to young people and has been operating since 2013.

Peel Ports has signed up to the organisation’s Impact Her package, which will see the port group attend community learning and networking events, host masterclasses in schools and virtual forums, and support up to 600 female students across Liverpool.

The announcement comes after the port group previously signed the Women in Maritime Pledge, overhauled its on-site PPE to accommodate female workers and has improved many of its employee-related procedures, including enhancing its maternity policy.

As part of the partnership, Peel Ports has already partnered with St Mary’s College in Sefton and employees from the Port of Liverpool are working with the school to promote STEM subjects to groups of students getting ready to pick their GSCE and A-level subjects in 2022.

Charlotte Havers, Senior HR Advisor at Peel Ports said: “We are aware of the gender gap that exists across the maritime sector as a whole and, while we are actively working to make the industry more inclusive for women, we recognise that there is still much work to be done.

“Partnering with like-minded organisations such as Innovate Her will help us to meet the challenges around diversity and inclusion at both a national and regional level. We aim to empower more young women with the confidence to complete STEM subjects and look forward to meeting some fantastic students, hopefully we can inspire them to consider careers in maritime.”

Mica Howarth, Marketing Manager at Innovate Her said: 'We are delighted to announce Peel Ports LTD as a partner. It's really great to see a powerhouse like them so passionate about our mission. We are very much looking forward to collaborating with Peel Ports on nourishing full career journeys of local teens, from igniting an initial flame of interest in STEM, to offering outstanding opportunities in the industry.”