Peel Ports lines up ‘game-changing’ £100m expansion

Leaning into the market’s increasing appetite for steel and metals, the port operator will invest in building two warehouses and a second automated terminal at the Port of Liverpool.

This is the second expansion of the steel and metals terminal at Port of Liverpool in two years and will enable the port to store an additional 35,000 tonnes of the material.

The new warehouses and automated terminal are just one part of Peel Ports Group’s £100m investment programme. Other works include a 360,000 sq ft increase in warehousing capacity at Port of London Medway as well as the building of an automated terminal there.

The £100m will also go towards the acquisition of an inland rail terminal in the Midlands – a move that will connect the London Medway and Liverpool deep-water ports.

Building the warehouses at the Port of Liverpool will kick off the initiative. With a cost of £32m, the warehouses are set to be 110,000 sq ft and 30,000 sq ft.

Together with the warehouses proposed at London Medway, this will see the storage capacity at Peel Ports’ portfolio grow 50% from 1m sq ft to 1.5m sq ft.

“This is a game-changing investment for us,” said David Huck, chief operating officer at Peel Ports Group.

“Demand for steel and metals handling across our port group, and the UK in general, has risen sharply over the past five years and this will allow us to expand our support to the construction and manufacturing supply chain right across the country,” he continued.

“This investment ensures we have the scale, speed, and specialist expertise to support our customers today and long into the future, helping to also address some of the storage and transportation issues the steel sector currently faces.”

The Port of Liverpool saw steel imports increase by more than 35% year-on-year in April, with 702,000 tonnes of the material being processed at the port in 2024.