Southampton’s new container handling facility to open on March 31

To be opened on March 31 by four-times Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie, the America’s Cup winner will signal the start of operations with the loading of a gold-painted container onto CMA CGM’s 16,000 teu Marco Polo.

The 500 m long new berth (SCT 5), the first for nearly 20 years, is designed to handle the largest vessels in the world, including the new 18,000-teu ships that are currently coming into service.

It is equipped with four new Liebherr super post-Panamax cranes capable of reaching across 24 container wide vessels. A fifth Liebherr crane has been relocated from elsewhere in the terminal. While the new berth has a depth alongside of 16 m, it can be deepened to 17 m to cater for any future growth in vessel size.