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Liverpool, Medway and Newport add space for steel

[ September 12, 2025   //   ]

Peel Ports Group is to invest £100m in extending its steels and metals capacity. It will spend £32m to add a further 140,000sq ft of storage at its Liverpool terminals and, overall across the ports of Liverpool and London Medway, warehousing will be increased by 50% from the current 1 million sq ft with an additional 500,000sq ft.

Further plans include creating a second automated terminal in Liverpool for steel coils, as well as a new automated terminal for Medway.

There will also be rail connections to a new inland rail terminal in the Midlands.

It follows a record year for steel imports into Liverpool.

Peel Ports chief operating officer, David Huck, said: “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.

“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. With expanded capacity and a growing, dedicated steel handling team, we can now move more product, more efficiently than ever before.

“The addition of a new rail terminal in the Midlands will allows us to efficiently connect the two strategically located deep-water ports of Liverpool and London Medway, boosting the efficiency of logistics for our customers and partners.”

The group has formed a new team of specialist stevedores at the Port of Liverpool and is recruiting for extra positions and training existing staff to enhance handling capability to meet the rise in demand.

Peel Ports can store and handle products, including rebar, plates, coil and aluminium and in April reported a record-breaking year for steel imports into Liverpool, with volumes up more than 35%.

It also became the first and only UK port operator to join the Aluminium Federation.

And during a visit by First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan and Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans to Newport on 11 September, the UK’s largest steel port, ABP announced that it would invest over £80 million and create around 50 new full-time jobs.

ABP’s has introduced handling equipment such as magnet-equipped Liebherr cranes and Kalmar forklift trucks.

Supported by the steel logistics specialist  WE Dowds, Newport handled 2 million tonnes of the commodity in 2024, accounting for 29% of the UK’s total iron and steel products.

Divisional port manager for Wales and Southwest, Ashley Curnow, said: “Our ambitious plans for development will see over £80 million of investment and over 50 jobs to support Newport as the UK’s largest steel handling port. This investment in capabilities and infrastructure will ensure the highest level of delivery for our customers. We are also excited to be announcing more development plans for the port in the near future.”

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