On Monday 30th January the first large ship into Trafford Park Docks arrived, marking it’s re-opening after being closed for over 10 years. The 2300 tonne ship 'RMS Duisburg’ brought two large silo’s from Germany, bound for a Manchester factory.
Esprit Warehousing & Docks, owned by businessman Graham Dixon, has invested nearly £1/4m into refurbishing the derelict site over the last 2 years. Graham’s vision and goal is for Esprit’s Trafford Docks to be busy once again, bringing bulk goods such as road salt, aggregates, grain and biomass via the Manchester Ship Canal into Manchester, removing many lorries from the surrounding roads and therefore reducing congestion and pollution. Graham said: “If one ship brings 3000 tonnes of freight up the canal, that’s over 100 lorry journeys removed from the roads, requiring only the first and the final few miles to be carried by lorry instead of potentially hundreds of miles.”
The Esprit Trafford Park Docks can handle vessels carrying upto 4500 tonnes of bulk goods or oversized freight which is too large for normal transport by road. Esprit have also refurbished two warehouses on the site upto food-grade standard, so freight can be stored at the docks, inside or outside, and gradually collected over a period of time. Graham added: “Businesses need to start thinking ‘can our raw materials or finished goods be transported on the canal rather than by road?”
Not only can goods be brought into Manchester, but those produced in Manchester can also now be shipped out via the Manchester Ship Canal. Equally freight doesn’t have to be international to use the canal. Esprit has recently signed an agreement with Belgian company Blue Line Logistics who operate smaller barges on inland waterways. These can be used for moving palletised goods between the many berths up and down the ship canal, utilising their onboard cranes for lifting pallets directly onto and off the quayside. In Belgium, many local authorities impose planning conditions requiring developers to bring their construction materials as near to the site as possible via the canals. The Manchester Ship Canal can now be used for ideas such as this, with Trafford Docks the ideal location, leaving only the final few miles for road transport.
Peel Ports have recently opened Port Salford for freight carried in shipping containers, so now Esprit’s Trafford Park Docks has opened for bulk and oversized freight, the ship canal can cater for most types of freight.
These two large silo’s were collected from Rotterdam by RMS Duisburg, shipped around the south coast of England and arrived at Esprit’s Trafford Park Docks in Manchester. Two large cranes soon had them transferred onto low loaders ready for the final four miles by road on Monday night under police escort.