Port infrastructure investment is essential for the UK’s ongoing economic stability

The diversity of cargo transited, their varied customer base, long-term customer contracts, and ability to adapt their product offering makes the UK ports sector resilient through business cycles, making them an attractive asset for a buy-to-hold investor like PIC, with pensions to pay stretching out decades into the future.

The funds we have provided will help them develop their basic infrastructure, making them – and by extension UK trade and exporters – more resilient and adaptable to the ever-changing global trade dynamic. Recent examples of the importance of this exceptional adaptability are acting as the critical link in the wind farm supply chain, as well as during Covid, when they successfully managed a significant increase in cargo traffic.

Enhancing port infrastructure to be able to act quickly and efficiently to the changing global geopolitical landscape will provide stability for the country. Whether it is a change in supply chain profiles as mentioned in Hartej’s article, or further energy price pressures due to escalation of the war in the Middle East highlighted by Sir David Lidington, ports will remain a key asset that the government and wider UK economy will rely on.

When it comes to supporting net-zero ambitions, UK ports are already underway with a number of exciting projects that PIC, along with other financial institutions are investing in: 

• In 2022, ABP announced the first large-scale green hydrogen import facility in the UK. The facility will be located at the Port of Immingham and will be used to import green ammonia which will be used to produce green hydrogen to help decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors such as transport and industry
• Peel Ports is developing a new maritime logistics hub that will take an estimated 14,700 lorry journeys off roads across the UK and continental Europe annually
• Forth Ports are leading the charge on Scottish Green Freeports, with a proposal that will generate up to 50,000 new jobs and act as a catalyst for new green technologies and renewable energy manufacturing which will make a significant contribution to the re-industrialisation of Scotland

We remain committed to this sector, and look forward to supporting it through 2024 and beyond. Whilst we are primarily focused on UK ports, we believe opportunities exist in other major trade hubs in Europe and Asia, which are exposed to global trade dynamics rather than local environments.