Port of London on crest of a wave

THE Port of London is back in the black, and making an operating profit, helped by an increase in revenue on landings of building materials for the high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Cement volumes were up 45% to 217,000 tonnes and aggregates 20% higher at 1.4m tonnes in 2001, helping to turn an operating loss of £2.4m into a profit of £400,000 last year.

'Aggregates and cement both had a good year as a result of the construction of the Channel Tunnel rail link,' said Port of London Authority chairman Simon Sherrard.

The PLA's pre-tax surplus was £1.15m, compared with a deficit of £1.6min 2000 as trade dipped in 1999 with the closure of the huge Shellhaven oil refinery on the north bank of the Thames near Corrington, Essex, forcing the PLA to make staff cuts.

Total throughput in 2001 topped 50m tonnes, 2.8m up on the previous year due to increases in fuel and vehicle traffic among the gains.

PLA is the port authority for 93 miles of the tidal River Thames from the Estuary to Teddington, Middlesex, and provides pilotage and navigational services, as well as maintaining shipping channels.

There are more than 80 independently owned terminals and port facilities along the river and the authority now looks forward to a further boost in revenues from more orthodox sources, as Shellhaven is to be relaunched by P&O in 2007 as London Gateway, the biggest deep-sea container port in the UK.

PLA is a public trust, established in 1908 to 'administer, preserve and improve' the port - one of Britain's top three - has no equity capital and is entirely financed from revenue without outside support, although it supplements internally-generated funds with commercial loans and leasing for capital projects.